Sororicidal by Edwina Preston

‘Sororicidal didn’t so much move me as arrest me. It stopped me in my tracks. A far more powerful thing.’ – Angela O’Keeffe

A punk-gothic historical novel in which sisterhood is the defining experience of two women’s lives – and also the potential death of them.

Well-born Mary and Margot are raised on a vineyard estate above Adelaide in the early years of the last century. Mary, brilliant and beautiful, dazzles all as her quiet, serious sister trails in her shadow. But Mary’s high-handed malice finds a match in Margot’s growing resentment at mistreatment; her revenge will be served at absolute zero.

Set against a backdrop of privilege and propriety – and unfolding in an era of global conflict and radical new ideas about art and female agency – Sororicidal is an account of Edwardian-era sisterly love that mutates into a very modern tale of rivalry and betrayal. The polite cruelty of their childhood games becomes adult battles where the endgame is to split the nuclear family, releasing utter devastation.

At once intimate and expansive, locally grounded and global in reach, Sororicidal is the story of womanhood across a convulsive century – and the ordinary lives of two sisters who remain inextricably linked across a lifetime: as mirrors, rivals, and executioners of one another’s dreams. It is a novel about the necessary and unendurable entanglements of family; the thin, volatile line between care and spite; and how love is a flame that both feeds and consumes.

Praise for Sororicidal

‘Such a brilliant, funny, rich novel; Sororicidal held me in its grip from the first page to the last.’ – Sofie Laguna

‘A story of repression and love, cruelty and beauty, written with a playful, elegant intelligence.’ – Holly Throsby

About the Author: Edwina Preston is a Melbourne-based writer and musician. She is the author of a biography of Australian artist Howard Arkley, Not Just a Suburban Boy and the novels The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer and Bad Art Mother. Her writing and reviews have appeared in The Age, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Heat, Island, The Conversation and Griffith Review.

31 Mar 2026
 

Sororicidal by Edwina Preston ISBN 9781761775550