August 2nd 2017 - 7.30pm sharp
This month's double bill has brilliant crime/thriller writers Aoife Clifford and Anna George.
“A sparkling debut...This debut novel from an award-winning short-story crime writer paints a picture of death and betrayal across the sexually charged canvas of a first year on a university campus...Tense, sparse and unmistakably Australian, the gripping plot challenges and subverts the notion of innocence until the very last page.” - Monocle Magazine
Anna’s critically acclaimed debut novel, What Came Before (2014), is a stunning literary thriller about the risks you take when you fall in love. It was shortlisted for the 2015 Ned Kelly and Sisters in Crime Best Debut Fiction awards, and was longlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award.
Anna has worked in the legal world as well as in film and television. Her second novel, The Lone Child (2017), has just been published and explores pain, judgement, love and loss. The Lone Child is a chillingly honest depiction of the bewildering and often isolating exhaustion of motherhood, and the fraught bonds between mother and child.
On The Lone Child…
“Absolutely arresting. A story shaped by contemporary social inequalities, their chilling consequences and, above all, the powerful, life-affirming love of women for their own and other people's children.” - Zoë Morrison, author of Music and Freedom
“A sensitive evocation of the sometimes dark and disorienting nature of motherhood, George’s haunting tale reminds us of the redemptive power of human connection.” - Wendy James, author of The Golden Child
Aoife’s bestselling debut novel, All These Perfect Strangers (2016), was published in Australia, the UK, and the USA.
She is the only person to have won both premier short story prizes for crime fiction in Australia – the Scarlet Stiletto, and the S.D. Harvey Ned Kelly Award. Among other prizes, she has been shortlisted for the UK Crime Association’s Debut Dagger, was awarded an Australian Society of Authors mentorship, and is an Amazon Rising Star.
Her short stories have been internationally published, and her next novel will hit the shelves in 2018.
“Suspenseful and taut…dual storylines of past and present are revealed skilfully and with the assurance of a seasoned crime writer...In the hands of a less talented writer this complex and multilayered tale might not have engaged so thoroughly but in this case the author delivers -- and how.” - Good Reading
On What Came Before…
“This took my breath away. Brilliantly structured and captivating.” - Geelong Advertiser
“A chilling, unsettling portrait of an abusive relationship. Pick this one up if you enjoyed The Lovely Bones and Gone Girl.” - Who Weekly