I Want Everything
Dominic Amerena
Summit Book, 2025
I Want Everything is truly compelling. It tells the story of a lacklustre Melbourne writer who stumbles across an unsolved literary puzzle in the form of the novelist Brenda Shales, who wrote two brilliant and controversial novels and then disappeared without a trace.
After a chance encounter, the narrator believes he has confirmed Brenda’s identity and tracks her down, pretending to be her estranged grandson to worm his way into her affections, find out her story, and write some kind of fictionalised biography, thus cementing his greatness.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend’s writing is becoming more and more celebrated and he wrestles with the morality of what he is doing.
The story that Amerena tells keeps you hooked through multiple twists and turns to the very last page, exploring literary hoaxes, talent, autofiction and how much writers truly reveal of themselves. A narrative that explores the ethics of writing and the limits of ambition.
