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'Garreth Hoyle is a true crime writer whose destructive love affair with hallucinogenic drugs has sent him searching for ghosts in the unforgiving mallee desert of Western Australia. Heading north through Kalgoorlie, he attempts to score off old friends from his shearing days on Banjawarn Station. His journey takes an unexpected detour when he discovers an abandoned ten-year-old girl and decides to return her to her estranged father in Leonora, instead of alerting authorities. Together they begin the road trip from hell through the scorched heart of the state’s northern goldfields.
'Love, friendship and hope are often found in the strangest places, but forgiveness is never simple, and the past lies buried just beneath the blood red topsoil. The only question is whether Hoyle should uncover it, or run as fast as his legs can take him.
'Banjawarn is an unsettling debut from Josh Kemp. Echoing Cormac McCarthy’s haunting border trilogy and narrative vernacular that recalls the sparse lyricism of Randolph Stow and Tim Winton, this is a darkly funny novel that earns its place amongst the stable of Australian gothic literature.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
- y Josh Kemp and Australian Gothic Fiction Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2022 24385104 2022 single work podcast interview 'Josh Kemp writes Australian gothic fiction. Banjawarn, joint winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, is his stunning debut novel. His short stories have been published by Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Seizure, Tincture and Breach. He’s previously been shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and longlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award.'
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The Push-pull of the Past : A Hypnotic Trip into Outback Gothic
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 441 2022; (p. 33)
— Review of Banjawarn 2022 single work novel'The latest in a new crop of outback gothic fiction, Josh Kemp’s début has everything readers have come to expect from the genre. There’s a messed-up bloke with a past. There’s a lost girl, ten years old and traumatised. There’s plenty of guilt and shame, damaged landscapes, haunted houses, injecting drug use, altered states, brutal acts of violence, and of course, there is the road.' (Introduction)
-
The Push-pull of the Past : A Hypnotic Trip into Outback Gothic
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 441 2022; (p. 33)
— Review of Banjawarn 2022 single work novel'The latest in a new crop of outback gothic fiction, Josh Kemp’s début has everything readers have come to expect from the genre. There’s a messed-up bloke with a past. There’s a lost girl, ten years old and traumatised. There’s plenty of guilt and shame, damaged landscapes, haunted houses, injecting drug use, altered states, brutal acts of violence, and of course, there is the road.' (Introduction)
- y Josh Kemp and Australian Gothic Fiction Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2022 24385104 2022 single work podcast interview 'Josh Kemp writes Australian gothic fiction. Banjawarn, joint winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, is his stunning debut novel. His short stories have been published by Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Seizure, Tincture and Breach. He’s previously been shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and longlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award.'
Awards
- 2023 winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer
- 2022 winner Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing — Best First Novel
- 2021 joint winner Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript as 'Stranger Places'.
- Leonora, Goldfields area, Southeast Western Australia, Western Australia,
- Kalgoorlie, Goldfields area, Southeast Western Australia, Western Australia,