A Long Time Coming

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 NIB: WAVERLEY LIBRARY AWARD FOR LITERATURE

A powerful collection of essays exploring what it means to grow old in our youth-obsessed world

To live a long life should be a joy; to be old should not be a burden.

With improved health care and higher standards of living, each generation is living longer than the last. Governments see our ageing population as an imminent disaster, and old age as a medical problem. We are encouraged to remain active, stay healthy, and work longer — in short, to refuse becoming old. But if living longer is really about staying young, do we risk turning a blind eye to issues facing the elderly?

Weaving interviews with research and memoir, Joosten undertakes a timely and clear-sighted investigation into the housing crisis as it affects older people, the politics of nursing-home care, the difficulties of dementia, support services for Indigenous Australians, and how the burden of caring for others can fall disproportionately on women.

Moving, passionate, and urgent, A Long Time Coming is a call for empathy in a society that valorises youth and self-reliance — a profound reminder that everyone has the right to be old.

PRAISE FOR MELANIE JOOSTEN

'[A] fine collection ... shows deep commitment and quite profound levels of insight and compassion.' The Weekend Australian

'Heartening ... [Joosten has] a novelist's feel for the texture of life.' The Sydney Morning Herald