We are delighted to be hosting an evening with Geoff Parkes in Ballarat.
'When The Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole' is set in 1980s in a small rural town in New Zealand and is rural noir with a twist! Geoff grew up in the area of New Zealand where the book is set and worked in a wool presser in his early years which helped form the setting for this novel (minus the crime!).
About 'When The Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole':
It’s January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand’s rugged King Country.
It’s a bittersweet trip: he’s working long, punishing hours as a woolpresser, he needs to sell his late mother’s house, and he’s increasingly feeling like an outcast in his childhood town.
But mostly he’s haunted by memories of Sanna Sovernen, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before - then vanished without trace.
Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers - and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Because Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveller in the area to disappear . . .
About Geoff Parkes:
Born and raised in rural New Zealand, Geoff Parkes now lives in Melbourne. For the last twelve years he’s written a weekly opinion column for The Roar, Australia’s leading on-line sports website. This is his first novel.
