Kira McPherson's debut novel, Higher Education, is a perceptive treatment of Australian campus class mobility and the consequences of misplaced, youthful desire. Moving beyond the generally ridiculous notion is unblemished and egalitarian (an idea perpetuated by those who don't want to truly acknowledge the classes below their own), McPherson's treatment of tertiary education and what it can and can't do for the people who get to access it, is convincing without being overstated.

Sam is the first person in her family to make it to year 10, let alone beyond. Her excellent school results land her a spot at university, studying arts and law. But it's not a natural home: there is the distance from her working-class family home and the social isolation on campus, not fitting in with the groups who walk between lectures and tutorials like they own the place (probably because their parents do).

Sam is introduced to Julia, whose husband, Anselm, is an English lecturer. Julia is a successful corporate lawyer to whom Sam becomes unavoidably attracted. A mentoring program for law students is the avenue for Sam to spend more time with Julia in a world where everyone else seems to know the rules but she doesn't.

Australians are often reluctant to talk about class, preferring to pretend that's the kind of thing that happens elsewhere. The beneficiaries of class mobility, though, have to navigate an in-between place - McPherson shows that this not easy as one finds oneself ill at ease in both one's past and future.

Sam's desire for Julia is misplaced and doomed. Julia is, after all, a much older, married woman. Why give that up for a dalliance with one of your husband's students? While Sam's longing is painfully impossible, McPherson considers it in a way that isn't irreversibly destructive. Mistakes are made - not all of them Sam's - but these errors don't have to be unforgivable. This is part of learning, growing up, moving on.

Higher Education is an accomplished and sensitive debut that dares to tread where others gingerly skirt around. Australia's class divides and what growing up between them is like when a person is still finding out what it means to love and be loved.

Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books write-ups and reviews.