October release: Juno and Hannah

Spinifex Press is delighted to announce the release of Juno and Hannah by Beryl Fletcher.

It is 1920, and deep in the New Zealand bush, a settlement of Christian fundamentalists live a life of austerity and isolation. Sisters Juno and Hannah have grown up in the community, but when a stranger washes up on the river bank and Hannah goes to his aid, she finds herself accused of necromancy. The girls flee but arequickly forced to accept help. Hannah, unsure who is friend or foe, finds herself dependent upon and attracted to the man into whose lips she breathed life.

Juno and Hannah is a remarkable novella. The vivid New Zealand landscape reflects the journey of the sisters with its bounty of beauty and resources but also with its scars, wrought during the early days of colonisation.

Juno and Hannah is at once a page-turning read, full of twists and surprises, and at the same time a painful account of women's journey through the hinterland of history. Beryl Fletcher has painted a stunningly accurate picture of wild territory, pain,separation, revival and regeneration in spite of dreadful odds. I am haunted by the courage of these women in the face of adversity, and the knowledge thattheir circumstances remain universal. —Fiona Kidman, author of Where the Left Hand Rests and Beside the Dark Pool

High gothic bush yarn, Juno and Hannah has all the ingredients of love, quest, humour and endurance played out against a background of rural 1920s life, eugenics and cult religion. Simply told, fast paced, Beryl Fletcher's new novella abounds with vivid evocations of the natural world and some unforgettable female characters. —Stephanie Johnson author of The Open World and The Writing Class

We hope you will consider this book for review, extract and/or author interview. Please be in touch if you would like further information or a review copy of this title.

Beryl Fletcher has published four novels, a memoir and short stories. The Word Burners won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Her work has been translated into German and Korean.

ENDS

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