Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These is the debut collection of short stories from Sydney-
based writer Amanda Maxwell with illustrations by Sarah Larnach, published by Serps Press.
The stories and illustrations explore teen years - the fuzzy boundaries between youth andadulthood, friendship and romance, independence and loneliness and the simple, yet inescapablebinary of happiness and sorrow. The stories are written with a fragile awareness; they have a pre-
loved and lived in weight to them and are as much about preservation as they are aboutobservation.
The illustrations are inspired by each story, but are made personal by Larnach’s obsession with
teenage hero worship and fan-art, which allows her to somehow transform the iconic into thedelicate. Most of the illustrations reference well-known photographs or images by contemporaryphotographers and film-makers.
The stories in Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These are set across Australia, New Zealand
and America, but will appeal to anyone from anywhere who is, or remembers what it was like to be,
young.
“The deal is these pieces are personal, broken, fragile; the voice we hear is pure and searching,
heat dazed and salty-haired soulful. Amanda Maxwell’s work makes life fun and serious with a coyand humorous tenderness. Unique and clean, it feels like pillow talk with a stranger. You read itand find it rustling in your ears for days afterwards.”
Robert Cook [Associate Curator, Art Gallery of Western Australia]
“My best friend is Sarah Larnach. She's a kiwi too. She lives in Sydney though. Sarah's anincredible artist. I think she’s a brilliant talent.”
Ladyhawke [Musician]
The Collaborators:
Amanda Maxwell and Sarah Larnach are both from New Zealand but
met and became friends in Vancouver while living there in the early2000s. They now live on different floors of the same building in KingsCross, Sydney. They love ripped jeans, Roxy Music and swimming inthe ocean.
Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These came together as anatural collaboration between the friends/neighbours, as neitherMaxwell or Larnach believe they ever really lost their own teen spirit.
They had previously been working together on story/illustrationcombos for Won Magazine.
Contact:
Serps Press
info@serpspress.com
“It was one of those moments when it seems like your life is going to change for the better and thefuture is an exciting place. I guess those moments are part of growing up, because I rememberhaving a few of them before that day, but none since.”
From the story ‘Golden Hour’