While it’s described as a work of literary gothic fiction, ‘The Women in the Well,’ the new book by Williamstown author, Dmetri Kakmi, draws heavily on his own life.
“Magnolia is really me, just in a different guise I suppose,” said Kakmi of the book’s protagonist, an Afghan-Aboriginal lesbian.
“She represents all the difficulties of people who grow up in one culture but live in another.”
Born to Greek parents in Turkey and then emigrating to Australia where he later came out as gay, Kakmi knows those difficulties better than most.
It’s a story he detailed in his 2008 memoir ‘Motherland’, and despite the difference in genre, Kakmi said his new novel had similar themes.
“Violence, children in dire situations, bad parenting. These themes appear in this novel as well, but in a highly exaggerated way of course.”
Given gothic fiction is just a glorified term for horror, exaggerations are to be expected, but Kakmi said the early feedback he’d received suggested readers thought it much more than just a scary book.
“They’ve said that it’s more of a hybrid novel that mixes crime with fantasy and horror and transposes that onto the Australian landscape.”
This includes Magnolia being Indigenous and the influence of Indigenous folklore and mythology on the story, something Kakmi said stemmed from his childhood..
“I found the Aboriginal people who lived along Merri Creek where I grew up far more welcoming towards us wogs.
“Then in high schooI started to read Indigenous histories and I just became fascinated.”
The Woman in the Well is out now through IFWG Publishing.
