Robbie Arnott

From a 2019 Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year and the author of the highly praised novel Flames comes another beguiling, transformative work of fiction confirming Robbie Arnott as one of Australia's most exciting writers.

The Rain Heron

• Two siblings traverse the southern island to try to find their way back to each other in this tale about grief and love and the bonds of family • Charlotte and Levi McAllister are trying to cope with the death, reincarnation and swift second demise of their mother. Their grief takes them in opposite directions in a world of wild and strange things • Robbie Arnott is a striking new voice in Australian fiction • Coming from a long tradition of novelists exploring landscape in their writing, Robbie's is an unconventional take on island life • Inspired by real people and events such as the Tasmanian naturalist Deny King and the Launceston floods of 2016, Flames is utterly original and captivating in its description of the natural world, and its celebration of the power of language • A slim yet ambitious, immersive and enjoyable debut novel that plays with form and style in a way not seen before • For fans of Richard Flanagan, Jennifer Egan and George Saunders

Flames

Limberlost

'Arnott has an eye and an ear for description that can elevate otherwise quiet moments to something genuinely transcendent... A luminously told, whole-life story of a young boy discovering how to be his own man.' Guardian Ned West dreams of sailing across the river on a boat of his very own. To Ned, a boat means freedom - the fresh open water, squid-rich reefs, fires on private beaches - a far cry from life on Limberlost, the family farm, where his father worries and grieves for Ned's older brothers. They're away fighting in a ruthless and distant war, becoming men on the battlefield, while Ned - too young to enlist - roams the land in search of rabbits to shoot, selling their pelts to fund his secret boat ambitions. But as the seasons pass and Ned grows up, real life gets in the way. Ned falls for Callie, the tough, capable sister of his best friend, and together they learn the lessons of love, loss, and hardship. When a storm decimates the Limberlost crop and shakes the orchard's future, Ned must decide what to protect: his childhood dreams, or the people and the land that surround him... At turns tender and vicious, Limberlost is a tale of the masculinities we inherit, the limits of ownership and understanding, and the teeming, vibrant wonders of growing up. Told in spellbinding, folkloric spirit, this is an unforgettable love letter to the richness of the natural world from a writer of rare talent.

The highly praised debut from Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott, now in a beautiful B-format edition. Released ahead of Arnott’s second novel, coming mid-2020.

Flammes

*Shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2019* ‘A strange and joyous marvel.’ Richard Flanagan *Shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2019* In Robbie Arnott’s widely acclaimed and much-loved first novel, a young man named Levi McAllister decides to build a coffin for his sister, Charlotte—who promptly runs for her life. A water rat swims upriver in quest of the cloud god. A fisherman hunts for tuna in partnership with a seal. And a father takes form from fire. The answers to these riddles are to be found in this tale of grief and love and the bonds of family, tracing a journey across the southern island. Utterly original in conception, spellbinding in its descriptions of nature and celebration of language, Flames is one of the most exciting debuts of recent years. Robbie Arnott was born in Launceston in 1989. He was a 2019 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist, and won the 2019 Margaret Scott Prize, the 2015 Tasmanian Young Writers’ Fellowship and the 2014 Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers. His widely acclaimed debut, Flames, was published in 2018. The Rain Heron, his second novel, will be published in 2020. Robbie’s writing has appeared in the Lifted Brow, Island, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and the anthology Seven Stories. He lives in Hobart. ‘Ambitious storytelling from a stunning new Australian voice. Flames is constantly surprising—I never knew where the story would take me next. This book has a lovely sense of wonder for the world. It’s brimming with heart and compassion.’ Rohan Wilson ‘Arnott confidently borrows from the genres of crime fiction, thriller, romance, comedy, eco-literature, and magical realism, throws them in the air, and lets the pieces land to form a flaming new world.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘This is a startlingly good first novel, stylistically adventurous, gorgeous in its descriptions and with a compelling narrative that should find a wide readership.’ Australian ‘An Australian literary fabulist classic – well, it certainly deserves to be.’ Avid Reader ‘Visionary, vivid, full of audacious transformations: there’s a marvellous energy to this writing that returns the world to us aflame. A brilliant and wholly original debut.’ Gail Jones ‘Robbie Arnott is a vivid and bold new voice in Australian fiction.’ Danielle Wood ‘Arnott skilfully switches between different voices and genres in a trick reminiscent of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. The range he displays is impressive, swinging from fable to gothic horror to hardboiled detective story.’ Books+Publishing ‘Flames is an exuberantly creative and confident debut. This is a story that sparks with invention...Invigorating, strange and occasionally brutal.’ Australian Book Review ‘This is the kind of book that you’ll be able to read a second, third, even fourth time, and it will still never reveal all its secrets. Composed with meticulous attention to detail, and a mastery of form rarely found in a debut novel, Flames will keep you stewing long after you’ve finished reading it.’ Readings 'A surprising story with a definite feminist edge...the novel’s playfulness and poetry make for a fresh and entertaining read.' Saturday Paper ‘It will be immediately apparent to anyone even vaguely familiar with Tasmania that Arnott is on intimate terms with his island, and his exquisite descriptive prose definitely does this gem of a place justice...More please, Mr Arnott.’ BookMooch ‘A gloriously audacious book. It runs astonishing risks and takes on the biggest emotions...It bowled me sideways.’ New Zealand Herald ‘The quirkiness of the characters—a staple of novels set in small-town Australia—allows for good-natured humour as well as biting satire, but it’s the mythic qualities of this novel that make it special. It’s as if Arnott has invented a whole mythology that is all our very own. If you like the fiction of Jane Rawson, I think you will like this one too.’ ANZ Lit Lovers ‘An extremely evocative and imaginative work...Undeniably powerful...it is refreshing to see the Australian landscape written about so vividly.’ Good Reading ‘[A] novel you will want to read more than once, not so much to plumb its depths as to savour its wild variety of styles and voices, to revel in its breathtaking descriptions of Tasmanian wilderness and to grasp its intricate structure...There is no doubt that a poetically wild and wicked imagination is at work here. More please!’ SA WEEKEND ‘It's not hard to see where the hype came from. This is an assured, funny and highly imaginative work. Flames is strange from the first, arresting sentence.’ Stuff NZ ‘Highly innovative...[A] finely built and realised first novel.’ Otago Daily Times ‘Unique and memorable...Extraordinary energy...A rich and memorable picture with prose of an exceptionally high quality. You won’t read another Australian literary novel like this anytime soon.’ Kill Your Darlings ‘Flames is brilliant...Enjoy it for its prose poetry, its vivid imagery, its brilliant turns of phrase on nearly every page.’ NZ Listener

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and winner of the 2021 Age Book of Year Award, The Rain Heron is a beguiling, transformative work of fiction confirming Robbie Arnott as one of Australia's most exciting writers. Now available in a smaller format.

Winner of the Age Book of the Year

From the Miles Franklin longlisted author of Flames, is a short story that will have you on the edge of your seat, screaming 'wake up'. ___________________ The mum and the dad are in bed but the boy is standing in the hallway. He's been sleepwalking again. The boy wakes up in the middle of the night to find a man in his hallway. But this is no regular man. No, he's a hall chimp. The man jumps around like a chimp, scratched his armpits like a chimp, rolls around on the floor like a chimp. The boy wants to play too...

Robbie Arnott

About

Books

Join the club