Although the Australian series Neighbours has been cancelled again (this time by Amazon), the soap’s 40-year run is some measure of its popularity. The storyline focused on several households in the same Melbourne suburb, depicting the residents’ friendships and rivalries. Kate Kemp’s debut novel takes place at a different time and place, but employs the same formula: ordinary folk and gossip.
Set in the sweltering summer of 1979 in a quiet cul-de-sac, in a Canberra suburb, The Grapevine opens with a woman scrubbing traces of blood from her bathroom floor. We learn that her husband has killed their neighbour, Antonio Marietti. The next day, as news of the gruesome murder spreads and Antonio’s body parts are discovered, the residents of Warrah Place start to point the finger at potential suspects.
Kemp, an Australian based in the UK and winner of the 2021 Stylist prize for feminist fiction for an earlier version of the novel, has said she was “interested in exploring women at different ages… how they inhabit their body… how they choose to present themselves”. Alternating between different points of view, she builds a convincing cast of characters: Curious, wilful 12-year-old Tammy, who is determined to solve the crime; melancholic, unfulfilled Naomi and her controlling husband; Lydia and Ursula, who conceal their love for each other; Debbie, Ursula’s niece, who arrives under a cloud after having an abortion; and Guangyu, who left Hong Kong with her family for a new start in Australia.
The Grapevine becomes less about the murder and more about the interactions of the neighbours in a claustrophobic close-knit community where dissatisfaction, secrets and prejudices proliferate like wildfire.
Certain characters are more interesting than others, and some backstories feel sketchily drawn. A scene towards the end verges on the melodramatic and stretches credibility, but Kemp has a couple of final twists up her sleeve. Tammy is a memorable creation and Kemp immerses us in her world through carefully layered detail and some gloriously evocative 70s Aussie slang.
• The Grapevine by Kate Kemp is published by Phoenix (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
