''The Wood of Suicides'' is a 2014

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

by Australian writer Laura Elizabeth Woollett. It centers on a 17-year-old girl's affair with her English teacher, after her father commits suicide.

Literary references

''The Wood of Suicides'' takes its title from Canto XIII of Dante's ''Inferno'', which describes a tortured wood where suicides are encased in bark. It also borrows heavily from the myth of

Apollo and Daphne Apollo and Daphne is a transformation myth from ancient Greek mythology, retold by Hellenistic and Roman authors in the form of an amorous vignette. History The earliest known source of this myth is Parthenius, a Greek poet who lived during t ...

, referencing it explicitly at several points.

Reception

''The Wood of Suicides'' has received mixed to positive reviews. ''Kirkus Reviews'' wrote "an anxious, uneasy, and despondent anti-romance novel." ''Publishers Weekly'' wrote "The novel successfully creates a disturbing, ethically ambiguous effect, but the prose, though true to the voice of a lovelorn, troubled teenager, feels overwrought."

References

2014 Australian novels Psychological novels Novels set in California Fiction about suicide 2014 debut novels Permanent Press (publisher) books {{2010s-novel-stub