On the eve of a huge gay mardis gras a city is destroyed by a flood - a moving, passionate, original and utterly fresh novel from the acclaimed author of Captain Starlight's Apprentice.
Kathryn Heyman is the author of four novels, including The Accomplice and Captain Starlight's Apprentice, published internationally and in translation. She has received an Arts Council of England Writers Award, the Wingate and the Southern Arts Awards, and been nominated for the Orange Prize, the Scottish Writer of the Year Award, the Edinburgh Fringe Critic's Awards, the Kibble Prize, and the West Australian Premier's Book Awards. She has written several radio plays for BBC radio, including adaptations of her own work. Her fifth novel, Floodline, will be published in 2013.
'Heyman's cool-eyed compassion for her characters draws out their humanity while staring hard at their flaws. The marvel is that the frailty she discovers in her women and men turns out to be the foundation of their greatest strengths. It is a paradox notated in language of poetic force and loveliness. A moving, graceful and fiercely interrogated work.' - Geordie Williamson, The Australian
'Kathryn Heyman's fifth novel has a parable-like quality reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. ... Indomitably redemptive.' - The Weekend Australian
'Heyman tackles diverse topics in this ambitious novel, from the limits of disaster relief to family secrets, from the sanctity of life to homophobia. Although her portrait of evangelical Christianity is scathing, it's also subtle, especially in her superb portraits of the boys' spiritual worlds... Floodline is a startling and confronting - and yet open-hearted - novel.' - Adelaide Advertiser
'Guaranteed to keep you hooked.' - The West Australian
'Floodline is quite brilliant in its observation of human behaviour and the way tragedy brings out the best and worst in different people. Heyman balances a book that is preoccupied with tragedy with moments of great humour.. .most definitely an award contender.' - Culture Street