The Year of the Beast
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
The Year of the Beast
By (Author) Steven Carroll
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
29th January 2019
Australia
Classifications
General
Fiction
First World War fiction
Family life fiction
Narrative theme: Social issues
War, combat and military adventure fiction
Physical Properties
Paperback
320
Width 155mm, Height 236mm, Spine 24mm
395g
Description
'He is one of the best we've ever had' Geraldine Brooks
One of Australia's finest and most critically acclaimed writers returns with a powerful novel that goes back to the very beginning of the story, to bring his sweeping Glenroy series to a magnificent close.
Melbourne, 1917: the times are tumultuous, the city is in the grip of a kind of madness. The Great War is raging, and it is the time of the hotly contested second conscription referendum. Fights are raging on the streets, rallies for 'YES' and 'NO' facing off against each other on opposing corners. Men, women and children, jostling, brawling, fighting and spitting.
Through these streets walks Maryanne, forty years old, unmarried and seven months pregnant. These are uncertain, dangerous times for a woman in her position. And she is facing a difficult choice - a choice which gets more urgent by the day - whether to give her child up for adoption as the Church insists she does, or to keep her child and face an uncertain future.
An extraordinary powerful novel of a time, a city and a woman, The Year of the Beast is Steven Carroll at his best. A rhythmic, insistent and pulsing novel that tells a compelling story of mothers, families, and what it means to be an individual, standing against the surge of the crowd.
Longlisted, the Voss Literary Prize 2020
Author Bio
Steven Carroll is the multi-award winning author of twelve novels including A World of Other People (2013) , which was the joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award, and The Time We Have Taken (2007), which was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the SE Asia and Pacific Region and the Miles Franklin Award in 2008. Forever Young (2015) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the Prime Minister's Literary Award in 2016. A New England Affair (2017) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in 2018 and The Year of the Beast (2019) was longlisted for the 2020 Voss Literary Prize. His most recent novel is O (2021). Steven lives in Melbourne with his partner, the author Fiona Capp, and their son.
