Cicada

A stunning novel of terror, love and survival in the most inhospitable country on earth. A white-knuckle chase story like no other - suspenseful, lyrical and breathtaking in equal measure. The literary debut novel of 2014. A stunning novel of terror, love and survival in the greatest wilderness on earth. A lyrical, heartbreaking epic debut...An isolated property in the middle of Western Australia, just after the Great War. An English heiress has just given birth and unleashed hell. Weakened and grieving, she realises her life is in danger, and flees into the desert with her Aboriginal maid. One of them is running from a murderer; the other is accused of murder...Soon the women are being hunted across the Kimberley by troopers, trackers and the man who wants to silence them both. How they survive in the searing desert and what happens when they are finally found will take your breath away...

• International Dublin Literary Award

  2016

  Longlist