NOBODY TOLD ME THERE'D BE DAYS LIKE THESE

NOBODY TOLD ME THERE'D BE DAYS LIKE THESE
Serps Press, 2008
Illustrated short story collection
x15 short stories by Amanda Maxwell @ajmax_writer
x15 watercolour paintings by Sarah Larnach @sarahlarnach.art
Paperback, perfect bound, standard paperback size (19 x 13cm), x190 pages

Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These was the debut illustrated collection of short stories from New Zealanders Amanda Maxwell (writer) and Sarah Larnach (artist), published by Serps Press in Sydney, Australia in 2008

The stories and paintings explore the teen years and the fuzzy boundaries between friendship and romance, independence and loneliness, and happiness and sorrow.
"The deal is these pieces are person, broken, fragil: 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 coy and humorous tenderness. Unique and clean, it feels like pillow talk with a stranger. You read it and find it rustling in your ears for days afterwards." Robert Cook, Art Gallery of Western Australia

The paintings are inspired by each story but are made personal by Grammy-nominee Sarah Larnach's obsession with teenage hero worship and fan-art, which allows her to transform the iconic into the delicate. Most of the paintings reference well-known photographs or images by contemporary photographers and film-makers.