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Fresh out of detox, Edward Degraves returns to Melbourne looking for a clean start. All he needs is one last trip to The Diplomat, a seedy motel known best for its drug dealers and eccentrics. But sobriety is both torment and a gift. As Edward revisits old haunts and faces people from his past, his failures follow close behind: ruined relationships, an abortive career as an artist and - looming over everything - the death of his beloved wife Gertrude. Fraught with grief and regret, The Diplomat is a powerful story of love and recovery, and the choices that lie between self-destruction and redemption.Praise for The Diplomat'This is a gem of a novel, full of all the good stuff - love, art, failure, heartbreak - told in a clear, strong voice brimming with loss and longing. A novel of propulsive storytelling and moving depth.' - Emily Bitto'Art, addiction and nostalgia swirl in reveries that tie London to Melbourne to the Weeping Woman heist. Edward is so heartbreakingly lost in the everyday, so doomed, that he could have risen from Dostoyevsky. Dark, touching and deeply authentic, this is Womersley at his very best.' - Jock Serong 'Threw me right back into the grimy inner-city Melbourne streets of the early 90s. Wonderful!' - Favel Parrett'Regret and grief are some bitter pills to try wash down. To write about them with raw tenderness, with all their savage complexity, is mighty. A harsh, brave and necessary addendum to Cairo. Bravo.' - Tim Rogers