

The second novel
Stonnington Libraries
Presented as part of the Stonnington Libraries Literary Festival, [untitled]: our writers, readers and stories
Location: Toorak/South Yarra Library, 340 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC
Time: 2pm - 3.30pm
Tickets are $10 plus booking fee and GST. Tickets are non refundable.
Second novel syndrome can be a difficult thing to overcome. Christian White (‘The Nowhere Child’, ‘The Wife and the Widow’) and Mark Brandi (‘Wimmera’, ‘The Rip’), whose keenly awaited second novels came out this year, discuss their experiences writing that second novel and how to triumph over doubts.
Christian White is an Australian author and screenwriter whose projects include feature film ‘Relic’. ‘The Nowhere Child’ is his first book and one of Australia’s best-selling debut novels ever. An early draft of this novel won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and since publication it has been shortlisted for major awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards’ General Fiction Book of the Year and the Indie Book Awards’ Debut Fiction Book of the Year. Rights to ‘The Nowhere Child’ have been sold in 16 territories around the world, and were acquired in a major screen deal by Anonymous Content (US) and Carver Films (Australia). ‘The Wife and the Widow’ (Affirm Press) was published in October. Christian lives in Melbourne with his wife, filmmaker Summer DeRoche, and their adopted greyhound, Issy.
Mark Brandi is the first Australian to win the coveted British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger for literary crime fiction debut, ‘Wimmera’. His second novel, ‘The Rip’, was published to critical acclaim by Hachette Australia in March 2019. Mark's shorter work has appeared in The Guardian, The Age, the Big Issue and in journals both here and overseas. His writing is also sometimes heard on ABC Radio National. Mark lives in Melbourne and is working on his next work of fiction.
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