Sharon Kernot
NIGHT SWIMMING
Publication Date - June 2, 2026, Text Publishing
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Tell me about your dreams
about your sleep
about your nightmares.
Tell me everything,
he says as he leans
towards me,
his eyes resting
on my thighs.
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'A riveting psychological thriller that catapults the reader into the mind of a deeply tormented and vulnerable protagonist, blurring the boundaries between victim and aggressor with shocking effect.'
BIRDY
9781922791672, Publication - January 30, 2024, Text Publishing
Since the incident, Maddy has barely spoken. When she and her mother and brother move to the country for the summer, it's a chance to rest and recuperate - or a way to hide from the world.
While there, she meets Alice who has been waiting for forty-five years for her daughter, Birdy, to come home.
In the quiet not-speaking and waiting, amid the clutter and chaos of the old woman's house, Maddy and Alice slowly become friends. Until Maddy takes something that's not hers.
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Birdy is a tender warm-hearted verse novel about the pain of loss and shame, the beauty of words, and the healing power of small acts of kindness.
THE ART OF TAXIDERMY
9781925603743, 288pp, $19.99
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Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does.
And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.
The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.
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Read an extract here or a Q&A with Margot McGovern here
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UNDERGROUND ROAD
978 1 743051924, 230pp, $24.95
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Damien, Edith, Kenneth and Mary are residents of a single street whose lives are ordinary to the last degree and as such encompass addiction and domestic violence, quiet achievements and small acts of kindness and treachery. Jack and Mary, locked at uncomfortably close quarters on Jack's retirement, chafe and sulk and fret. Edith finds solace in her lonely life playing the pokies. Young Damien, terrified of his stepfather Marcus and the school bully, broods on revenge. And Kenneth, unhinged, wanders the streets. Lives intertwine and decisions are made. And the tension grows to its shattering climax.
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'A sharply political novel, highlighting uncomfortable but necessary questions about justice, fairness and human rights.' - Francesca Rendle-Short
Books are available from Wakefield Press