But this debauching of a decent one was more compelling than anything I had ever experienced.' The girl's high-serious tone and overwrought language ('Oh how can I begin to show you the contours of my perversion? Your exploration destroyed these lands, darling'), while plausibly that of a teenager, becomes grating nonetheless, but Coote's brazen novel never falls into precocity or melodrama.

'I had thought there could be no pleasure more exquisite than that of seducing a shy man. 'I held all the aces-youth, beauty and cuteness.' The narrator becomes increasingly calculating as she tangles him in her web of sexual manipulation. With newly awakened sexual powers, she casts a spell over her defenseless unnamed teacher. The narrator, raised competently, albeit coldly, by her aunt and uncle, maintains a wholesome facade, behind which lies a devious imagination and utterly jaded view of human relations. The story is written as a letter from the nameless, orphaned 16-year-old Catholic schoolgirl to her 34-year-old lover reviewing their affair and its consequences. Coote's debut (written when she was 19) details a twisted love affair between a teenage student and teacher from the nymphet's point of view.

Her novel Innocents was originally published in Australia, in 1999.Was Lolita utterly cunning and Humbert Humbert the innocent seduced? In Australian writer Coote's provocative variation on a theme tackled many times before, the answer is a disturbing and (nearly) unequivocal yes. She was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year award in 1995 and the Canberra Times Young Writer of the Year award, in 19.Ĭathy Coote, who grew up in Australia, the daughter of two doctors, told the ACT Writers Centre: 'I have ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil.' While still in her teens, she received three Young Writer of the Year Awards-one from the Sydney Morning Herald and two from the Canberra Times- and had stories and columns published in other Australian newspapers. She attended Narrabundah College and Australian National University. Cathy Coote is an Australian author who was born in 1977. Her novel Innocents was originally published in Australia, in 1999. Cathy Coote, who grew up in Australia, the daughter of two doctors, told the ACT Writers Centre: 'I have ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil.' While still in her teens, she received three Young Writer of the Year Awards-one from the Sydney Morning Herald and two from the Canberra Times- and had stories and columns published in other Australian newspapers. She was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year award in 1995 and the Canberra Times Young Writer of the Year award, in 19.

Cathy coote