Down to the River

“Finn gives her characters interior complexity, and not just her protagonist.”

– The Australian Newspaper

“Down to the River is a graceful novel that wears its acuity lightly. The paradoxes                                                                                              and inconsistencies of character are sharply etched, but Finn’s insights into human                                                                                              weakness are humane.”

– The Australian Newspaper

“S.J. Finn has managed the alternating narrators so seamlessly that I hadn’t realised                                                                                                      as I was reading that each chapter shifts in the same order from one character to another.”

                                                                               – Readings Monthly

“This is at times an incredibly uncomfortable book to read, but good fiction should be                                                                                         challenging and thankfully there are still small publishers willing to take risks and bring                                                                                     important books like this to light.”

                                                                                – Readings Monthly

“It is a tribute to her [Finn’s] well-crafted prose and ear for language that there are startling                                                                                    moments of beauty mixed into the muddier moral and ethical ground.”

                                                                                – Books and Publishing

“Finn’s writing is neither tawdry nor sensationalist: she uses fine brushstrokes, not broad                                                                                       ones, to paint a portrait of a town in crisis and a woman at a crossroads.”

                                                                                 – Books and Publishing

“Down To The River” is a sharp and impressively woven novel.” 4 Stars

                                                                                 – Bait for Bookworms

“...this is a book that refuses to accept simple responses to complex social concerns ... and                                                                                           the novel will surely be responsible for more than a few arguments around the book-club table.”

                                                                                 – Australian Book Review

“...beautifully rendered imagery – such as the stag with 'antlers as wide and high as a                                                                                             winter fruit tree' – makes for what is often highly evocative reading. A good start to the                                                                                        year for one of Australia’s best small presses.”

                                                                                   – Australian Book Review

“...excellent things about this novel are its evocation of the atmosphere and social                                                                                                  workings of a small community, its careful and nuanced treatment of knotty ethical                                                                                            problems, and its wholly convincing scenes involving a Catholic priest and a small boy.”

                                                                                  – Sydney Morning Herald & The Age

“Finn has written a tight, taut, dark, true, astute novel about really complicated things,                                                                                            like stigma and suspicion and danger and secrets.”

                                                                                   – Kate Holden

“Three cheers for SJ Finn who’s used the verb ‘rootles’ in her excellent new release                                                                                              ‘Down to the River.’”

                                                                                   – The eds @sincerely_ed

“Down to the River is a timely portrait of a town in crisis, from a deeply thoughtful                                                                                            writer. Finn has the rare courage to meet the troubled subject of child sexual abuse head on.                                                                               Her careful calibration of tension and her knack for intimate characterisation build                                                                                                    to a moving, beautifully orchestrated finish. Along with its simmering moral questions,                                                                                              it leaves you with a fresh appreciation for the pleasure of the well-crafted novel.”

                                                                                                        - Jennifer Mills 

 This Too Shall Pass

"This Too Shall Pass is a wonderful curveball of a novel that tackles big issues in an                                                                                             oblique way and also has the courage to wrestle with a particularly important issue that                                                                                              is too often left out of contemporary Australian literature: the workplace.”

                                                                                   – Triple R FM

“As a novelist, Finn shows incredible control over her authorial voice, an excellent                                                                                               willingness to take risks and a restraint in refusing to spell things out too explicitly for                                                                                             the reader in this book, what's been left out becomes every bit as important as what's been put in.”

                                                                                   – Triple R FM

“A calm and thoughtful novel set in contemporary Melbourne, written for intelligent
  grown-ups by someone with an ear for laughter and forgiving. Which might resemble
  acceptance of the things we cannot change.”

                                                                                    – The Age Newspaper

“This Too Shall Pass acknowledges, in a way like Helen Garner's The Spare Room, the
   difficult and the confusing and life's unresolvable, constant and intricate instabilities. It's
   best to ride with it.”

                                                                                   – Sydney Morning Herald

“Finn is adept at pinpointing characters idiosyncrasies. a skilfully crafted first novel.                                                                                            Finn's succinct characterisations are filled with insight and are often very funny. Her story adroitly
records a short but telling period in a life. "Chapters, as people call them," notes Monty.
We look forward to more of them from Finn.”

                                                                                   – Australian Book Review

“This is a brave novel that will be enjoyed by readers interested in the fall-out when nuclear families shatter.”

                                                                                   – Books and Publishing

“... a moving, wonderful, thought-provoking read, make no mistake.”

                                                                                    – The Territorian 

“An articulate, intelligent account, it is not bogged down in one skerrick of sentimentality.”

                                                                                   – Overland Literary Magazine