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After the death of their father, Laura and Clare first live with their irresponsible mother for a while and then enter the “care” of Felix, whom Laura is forced to marry out of desperation. When the husband's initially relatively harmless “eccentricities” begin to reveal his malevolent, morbid and irrational inner world, it is too late. The two young women find themselves in the midst of an uneasy and dangerous life hanging by a thread of his unstable psyche. Above all, in The Watchtower, Elizabeth Harrower convincingly portrays how people can become trapped in situations that to others might seem insurmountable. She describes how mental disorders, even if not contagious, can intimidate and despair those close to them. In a micro-world where reason has lost its sway, it reveals the difficulties of holding on to both logic, emotion and conscience, and sends the message that despite all this, there is still a way out, and the only way to reach it is to break through inertia. Harrower's refined style, which avoids pretentiousness, the success of his character portrayals and the depth of his psychological analysis make this novel an indispensable part of modern Australian literature.