Description

‘Clever and engrossing’
MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘This Moebius strip of linked stories bends and twists the crime genre until it is barely recognisable . . . The result is a riveting study of human nature’
GERALDINE BROOKS, author of Horse

‘Addictively engaging, profoundly serious fiction from an underappreciated master’
KIRKUS, starred review

‘A standout meditation on a community’s legacy of violence’
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes.

From the killer’s childhood town to Texas, Rome and beyond, from the mid-twentieth century to the near-future, Highway Thirteen asks how do communities make sense of such atrocities? How does the mourning of families sit alongside the public fascination with terrible crimes? And can we tell true crime stories without centring the killers?

PRAISE FOR FIONA MCFARLANE’S THE SUN WALKS DOWN

‘Steinbeckian Majesty’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘Moving and masterful’
DAILY MAIL

‘Brilliant, fresh and compulsively readable’
ANN PATCHETT

Publisher Review

In Fiona McFarlane’s gifted hands, this Mobius strip of linked stories bends and twists the crime genre until it is barely recognisable . . . The result is a riveting study of human nature — Geraldine Brooks, author of HORSE These sublime stories have the poise and clarity of classics. As Fiona McFarlane’s characters edge towards revelation or disaster, her artistry shines on every page — Michelle de Kretser, author of SCARY MONSTERS McFarlane expands our understanding, illuminating what it is to be human . . . compulsory reading for anyone who’s ever read (or written) a tale of murder — Hayley Scrivenor, author of DIRT TOWN McFarlane is a ventriloquist in these brilliant stories, voicing our fear and fascination around atrocity, the shocking ordinariness of its perpetrators — Kristina Olsson, author of SHELL PRAISE FOR FIONA MCFARLANE’S THE SUN WALKS DOWN

‘Steinbeckian Majesty’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘Moving and masterful’
DAILY MAIL

‘Brilliant, fresh and compulsively readable’
ANN PATCHETT

‘I can’t think of another writer working today who I admire more’
KEVIN POWERS