This is a story where magical realism meets barbarism. Based on the infamous Borden murders that took place in Massachusetts in 1892 ( “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” ) Schmidt’s story is a feverish read.Īgain set in Tasmania-this time in a penal colony, only a short walk north of hell- Gould’s Book of Fish follows the eponymous Gould, convicted forger and painter of fish. While set in the USA, See What I Have Done is the debut novel from Aussie author Sarah Schmidt. Lanagan has since published Tender Morsels -a black retelling of Grimm’s (already very dark), “Snow White and Red Rose.” Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice features ten weird and wonderful short stories, including “Singing My Sister Down”, which won the World Best Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.
Tasmania has inspired many Australian stories, and Favel Parrett’s devastating debut about three brothers growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania is as good as any of them. Moody, at times treacherous, our southern-most island is the setting for its very own brand of Gothic fiction. If, as academic Gerry Turcotte says, Australia is: “… Gothic par excellence, the dungeon of the world” then Tasmania is the trapdoor in the floor. Based on the most infamous literary hoax in Australian history ( the Ern Malley Affair ) Carey creates a seven-foot giant called Bob McCorkle who rises from his creator’s imagination to rival Mary Shelley’s infamous monster. Peter Carey’s My Life as a Fake is part true story, part reimagining of that Gothic classic: Frankenstein. Film rights have been optioned by Reese Witherspoon. From the dry crackle of the undergrowth, to the heat haze on the horizon, Harper’s landscape might be vast but the mood is mercilessly claustrophobic. So much so that many readers (mistakenly) believe the story to be true.ĭon’t let its detective fiction façade fool you The Dry is as much a Gothic novel as it is straight-up crime. The unsolved mystery of Hanging Rock-and the trope of the lost child in the bush-speaks deep to the Australian psyche. A clutch of corset-clad schoolgirls picnic at Hanging Rock and, when four girls disappear, two are never seen again. Shocking and tragic, The Secret River chronicles the life of Will Thornhill, a convict from the London slums who evades execution only to be deported to Australia-“a place, like death, from which men did not return”. Kate Grenville’s tale of first encounters is inspired by the author’s own family history. Now a feature film starring Kate Winslet. Rosalie Ham combines desert, dresses and a healthy dash of darkness in her savage story about a small town with a suspiciously high body count. The outback’s not often synonymous with Gothic.
It has Faulkner’s fingerprints all over it. Cave’s first novel And the Ass Saw the Angel features outcast Euchrid Eucrow, from the (fictional) fundamentalist town of Ukulore, in the Deep South. So it’s no surprise that his love for Southern American Gothic literature looms large in his fiction, too. Here are 10 classic Aussie novels to make you shiver despite the sunshine.Īussie musician Nick Cave has long been considered the Gothic god of rock.
After all, isn’t the nightmare more terrifying if it unfolds during broad daylight?
Which brings us back to all that sparkling sunshine, those blisteringly blue Australian skies-these only serve to heighten Gothic’s long shadow. (Far more terrifying, for instance, if the creature beheading your chickens is not some fantastical beast from the woods, but the neighbour you wave to each sunshiny morning.) The horrific and the mundane are often placed side by side so that readers view the everyday in a new light.
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