The Good People
By (Author) Hannah Kent
Pan Macmillan Australia
Picador Australia
27th June 2023
Australia
General
Fiction
Short-listed for Indie Book Awards 2017 (Australia)
Paperback
400
Width 131mm, Height 197mm, Spine 27mm
302g
Nra Leahy has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year, and is now burdened with the care of her four-year-old grandson, Michel. The boy cannot walk, or speak, and Nora, mistrustful of the tongues of gossips, has kept the child hidden from those who might see in his deformity evidence of otherworldly interference. Unable to care for the child alone, Nra hires a fourteen-year-old servant girl, Mary, who soon hears the whispers in the valley about the blasted creature causing grief to fall upon the widow's house. Alone, hedged in by rumour, Mary and her mistress seek out the only person in the valley who might be able to help Michel. For although her neighbours are wary of her, it is said that old Nance Roche has the knowledge. That she consorts with Them, the Good People. And that only she can return those whom they have taken ...
Hannah Kent's first novel, the multi award winning international bestseller, Burial Rites, was translated into over 30 languages and is being adapted for film. Her second novel, The Good People was translated into 10 languages, nominated for numerous awards and is also being adapted for film. Devotion, her third novel, published in 2021, won Booktopia's Favourite Australian Book, and was shortlisted for multiple industry awards. Her original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, was directed by Daina Reid and starred Sarah Snook. Hannah is also the co-founder of Kill Your Darlings, and has written for The New York Times, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Qantas Magazine and LitHub. She lives and works on Peramangk and Kaurna country.