A bit jarring in places but overall a good read. Satisfying yet heart wrenching ending. ( )

This is a difficult, ugly story. A story of an angry, charming monster and the woman who falls in love with him, it spirals into darker and more unpleasant territory as it goes and by the end I wasn't really sure why I was reading it. It's trying to paint a compelling portrait of partner violence and does a good job of working through the motivations of the woman involved, who finds herself unable to escape from a clearly damaged relationship. There were notes that didn't quite ring true to me and a structure that took some of the tension from the book (the final incident of violence is revealed in the opening pages), but it's powerful and pacy writing tackling an important topic. ( )

A debut novel by Melbourne writer Anna George WHAT CAME BEFORE has a dramatic opening in which a man starts making a statement into his dictaphone where he admits that he’s just killed his wife. The novel proceeds (or precedes mostly) from there to pick apart the two-year relationship between David and Elle and explain – as much as such things can ever be truly understood – how it came to such an end.

Where the book excels for me is in its depiction of its two central characters. Elle is a smart, capable woman yet she slides into a dysfunctional relationship with David and stays there even as her doubts increase. David is neither knuckle-dragging nor monster and is self-aware enough, at least at times, to know the difference between the man he wants to be and the one he seems to be. In short, they are not the “other” people that bad things happen to. They are just like you and me.

Even if you haven’t yourself been involved in an abusive relationship I’d be prepared to wager there isn’t a reader alive who wouldn’t recognise the realism in it. Surely we have all lied to ourselves and our loved ones about some aspect of our life that isn’t as it should be; isn’t as we display it to the world. And many will have watched someone they know be swallowed up in the kind of self-delusions that Elle, and David too, succumb to. The depiction of Elle is particularly perfect. Her excitement at the intensity of her love for David. Her willingness to throw her natural caution to the wind due to the unexpected strength of her feelings. Her dawning recognition that not everything about David is good; that sometimes he scares her. The internal arguments she has with herself about whether or not to stay and how much of his behaviour is her fault. Her determination to believe she is in control. That she can change him through sheer force of her will. Even when her strangled body is lying on the laundry floor of her home and she’s floating ethereally above it Elle is very, very believable. As is David. Even when he’s managing to blame Elle for being strangled by him.

As a story the book didn’t work quite as well for me. The opening – though dramatic – made it impossible for me to be caught up in the early, heady days of Elle and David’s relationship. In telling me that the relationship was doomed from the outset I felt…cheated…I suppose in not being able to experience the roller coaster effect of a good thing gone horribly wrong. Instead from page one I was just waiting for David to falter, as I had been told he would. Perhaps that was the author’s intent, perhaps she wanted to show that it was never a good thing to start with, but I couldn’t help thinking that in this instance I’d have preferred a more traditional placement of beginning, middle and end.

There are also some really clunky parts of the novel. Elle is a film writer and director and is in the throws of making a romantic comedy during her relationship with David. I thought the author tried way too hard to draw parallels between the film and Elle’s life, to the point I wanted to shout “OK I get it, can we move on please“. And there’s the ending which I thought gimmicky and was, perhaps perversely, disappointed by. But for me the most significant flaw is the entire thread which deals with what comes after David’s strangling of his wife. It isn’t a huge component of the novel but it doesn’t feel nearly as well put together to me as the flashbacks which make up the bulk of the narrative. And at some points it is decidedly awkward. For example at one point David has gone to visit his godfather, who is a lawyer like David. He wants a sense from Reg about his chances, legally, and is dismayed when Reg reports on recent changes to the law. For me Reg’s dialogue is too…perfect…as if it had been crafted by a speechwriter in advance of a politician’s make-or-break speech on the subject of domestic violence

‘We live to higher standards today’. Reg focuses in tight on David. ‘You cannot kill your wife because you have lost control of her.’ …
‘And we,’ says Reg, ‘cannot continue to blame women for their deaths.’ (pg85)

Don’t get me wrong, I agree completely with the sentiments expressed I just didn’t feel they were natural. If it had been a movie Reg would have turned to the camera, Frank Underwood style, and broken the fourth wall to spout these lines rather than use them as dialogue uttered in what should have been a scene of panic and confusion on Reg’s part. This, and a few other sections like it, jarred and took me out of the otherwise consuming and enveloping sense of realism the novel had.

The subject of domestic violence needs to be raised, discussed, brought out into the light. Anna George has done so thoughtfully and with rare accessibility. It is difficult, if you are fortunate enough to have never been involved in such circumstances, to understand how and why people – victims and perpetrators – end up at the point of no return. WHAT CAME BEFORE offers real insight into this complex subject by depicting both Elle and David credibly and offering a plausible explanation without ever confusing that for justification. For me the pursuit of this admittedly admirable achievement seems to have overshadowed consideration of narrative structure and style at some points but overall it’s a book I’d find hard not to recommend, even with the odd caveat

* Copy courtesy of The Reading Room and Penguin Random House *

What Came Before is the debut novel from Anna George, a Melbourne based author with a background as a lawyer.

Set in suburban Melbourne, this novel about love and domestic violence has one of the best opening lines I've read all year, and it certainly sucks you in from the beginning:
“My name is David James Forrester. I’m a solicitor. Tonight, at 6.10, I killed my wife. This is my statement.”
This psychological thriller is told in flash back sequences by David's wife Elle Nolan, as she is floating above her broken body, a victim of domestic violence. We also hear David's perspective as he panics and tries to grapple with his foul deed.

What Came Before is an interesting and slightly disturbing insight into a seemingly normal relationship and it's steady decline. Knowing the ending doesn't detract from the plot, and I think it's a good warning for those finding themselves in a troubled relationship.

My only problem was that I recently read Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, which is a hard hitting account of domestic violence that was a brilliant read (I wanted to give it 51/2 stars it was that good). What Came Before was more subtle, but after reading Into The Darkest Corner two months ago, I can't help comparing my reading experiences.

If you're looking for a psychological thriller set in Australia or in Melbourne, then I highly recommend What Came Before. ( )

“My name is David James Forrester. I’m a solicitor. Tonight, at 6.10, I killed my wife.
This is my statement.”

In her remarkable debut novel, Anna George begins with the end in order to explore what came before. As David Forrester sits slumped in his car, and Elle Nolan floats over her broken body, George takes us back to the beginning of their relationship, witness first to the heady rush of attraction and then the slow, painful corruption of love.

With keen insight and deft characterisation, George exposes the dynamic of domestic violence from the perspective of both abuser and victim.

David frames love in terms of power and control. His rare concessions are manipulative, his few apologies calculated, his affection conditional.

"You cannot kill your wife because you have lost control of her."

Elle frames love in terms of surrender, gradually conceding her wants and needs to David, desperate to recapture the limerence of their initial connection.

"If only she had held onto herself"

But of all the truths in narrative it is this that resonates the strongest with me...

"Looking back she wonders at his mastery. He'd said so little yet she had heard so much.

What Came Before is a finely crafted, provocative novel told with a powerful intensity.

"It's only once the damage has been done that anyone bothers about what came before." ( )