The novel follows the three characters’ lives as they unfold over the course of as many decades. There are relocations, to Italy and then to Australia. Celia, Marcia, and Mickey endure failed relationships, poor health, and the spectre of their own mortality. There are long periods of silence between them. As one character observes, friendships can be ‘tricky’.

Trio is the fourth novel by Perth writer Geraldine Wooller. The eclectic, international life experiences that are described in her author’s biographical note have undoubtedly influenced the book’s narrative. Wooller’s flair for character development is laudable. Her key protagonists are not always likeable (indeed, they are often unlikeable), but their various changes over the years – and the concurrent changes in their friendship – are compelling and believable.

‘As one character observes, friendships can be ‘tricky’’

There is the occasional trite passage (one example: ‘Nature was the essence of love’). Otherwise, Wooller’s prose is impeccable, devoid as it is of jargon, clichés, and overstatement. Her eye for detail is most obvious in the evocation of the various cities in which her protagonists reside. The descriptions of London – with its perpetually grim weather and cosy pubs – offer a case in point. Also, Trio avoids descending into the realm of soap opera. This descent could well have happened in the hands of a less skilled author. In saying that though, some histrionics might have enlivened the text. There are a number of thuddingly dull patches scattered throughout this otherwise engrossing book.