Bereft:
a novel
Overview
It is 1919. The Great War has ended, but the Spanish flu epidemic is raging across Australia. Schools are closed, state borders are guarded by armed men, and train travel is severely restricted. There are rumours it is the end of the world.
In the NSW town of Flint, Quinn Walker returns to the home he fled ten years earlier when he was accused of an unspeakable crime. Aware that his father and uncle would surely hang him, Quinn hides in the hills surrounding Flint. There, he meets the orphan Sadie Fox — a mysterious young girl who seems to know more about the crime than she should.
A searing gothic novel of love, longing and justice, Bereft is about the suffering endured by those who go to war and those who are forever left behind.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Paperback
- 198mm x 128mm
- 272 pages
- 9781921844027
- AUD$26.99
- 8 March 2011
Categories
Awards
- Winner of the 2011 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- Winner of the 2011 Indie Award for Fiction
- Shortlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Award
- Shortlisted for the null Age Book of the Year Award
- Shortlisted for the 2011 ALS Gold Medal
- Shortlisted for the 2011 Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award
- Shortlisted for the null Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction
- Shortlisted for the 2012 CWA Gold Dagger Award
- Longlisted for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- Longlisted for the 2012 The Guardian's Not The Booker Prize
Praise
‘an entertaining and tense gothic tale set in 1919 in country NSW as the flu epidemic rages.’
‘Beautifully written and conceived, Bereft pushes at the borders of literary fiction and thriller, spinning a horrific incident in one man's life into a page-turning reflection on grief and guilt, on the nature of storytelling and its inevitable joys and shortcomings, on what we have to believe in order to survive.’
About the Author
Chris Womersley’s debut novel, The Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. His second novel, Bereft, won the Australian Book Industry Award for Literary Fiction and the Indie Award for Fiction; was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Age Book of the Year, the Australian Society of Literature Gold Medal and the UK’s Gold Dagger award; and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Bereft and The Low Road have been translated into a number of languages. Chris’s short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Best Australian Stories 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Griffith REVIEW, Wet Ink and Meanjin; and one of his stories was shortlisted for the BBC International Short Story Award in 2012. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and son.
Contact him at www.chriswomersley.com.
