Number 3 chiller
Twelve years ago, Linda’s sister Anna was murdered. Her killer was never caught, but Linda saw him. And she’s just seen him again on TV. He’s become a well-known journalist, and Linda—a famous novelist and infamous recluse—knows no one will believe her if she accuses him.
Mette Jakobsen’s spellbinding debut novel, The Vanishing Act, was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and received extraordinary praise. She returns this month with a new novel, What the Light Hides, a sensitive and beautifully rendered portrait of a marriage and the terrible grief of losing a child. Read an extract below.
Helen Garner has just won a Windham-Campbell Prize for her outstanding contribution to international literature. In awarding the prize the judges said: ‘Helen Garner brings acute observations and narrative skill to bear on the conflicts and tragedies of contemporary Australian life.’
In a new series of blog posts, we’d like to introduce you to the Text team. And what better place to start than with our Publisher, Michael Heyward, who shares his passion for the bookish life and his hopes for the industry in Australia.
Yes, it’s almost March, and we’re giving away a whole new bunch of books—new books by Muriel Barbery, Nick Cave and Jesse Ball, as well as fantastic debuts by Meg Caddy, Jennifer Down and Caroline Lea.
Trent Jamieson’s Day Boy has been shortlisted in both the Best Young Adult Novel and Best Fantasy Novel categories, and Skin by Ilka Tampke has been shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel.
The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science-fiction, fantasy and horror writers.
Jennifer Down’s debut novel, Our Magic Hour, was picked up by Text after being shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Carrie Tiffany describes it as a novel that contains ‘all the rapture and calamity of youth’, and Jennifer Down as ‘a writer of rare insight and heart’. Here Jennifer answers some questions about her writing and inspirations.
Text has just acquired The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley—a 2016 Newbery Honor Book and winner of a Schneider Family Book Award and the Josette Frank Award.
Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog was published in forty-three countries, spent more than sixty weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists and sold millions of copies worldwide. Seven years after the publication of her international bestseller, Barbery returns with a moving novel about the quest for enchantment in a world that seems to have forgotten such a thing ever existed. Read on to discover her inspirations for this wonderful book.
Not only has Yann Martel released a wonderful new novel this month, he has also written a thoughtful and astute introduction to the new Text Classics edition of Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy. An arresting and evocative tale of an abandoned child, Dog Boy won the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. The Text Classics edition will be available on 24 February 2016. Read Martel’s introduction below.
