AustLit

'It's 1969 and mankind has leapt up to the moon, but a young mother in small town Australia can't get past the kitchen door. The day is unravelling for Louise Ashland; her husband is away on the road, her mother won't leave her alone, and her baby, Dolores, won't stop screaming. Or wouldn't stop screaming - now she's sweetly sleeping. Or is she?

'Louise's mother, former beauty queen Gladys, claims to know why Louise is suddenly refusing to admit her into the house, and she recruits a small army, including her much-maligned son-in-law Steven, to try and infiltrate. Meanwhile, Steven's infidelity has led to blackmail and all the clues seem to lead right back to his mother-in-law Gladys, for whom the line between protection and annihilation seems mighty thin. When Steven sends his best friend, a cop, to check on his wife, and Gladys makes a final attempt to 'rescue' her, the stage is set for an apocalypse.

'The silence finally broken on the family secrets, Louise must decide once and for all whether she is or isn't 'like Mother.''(Publication summary)

'When a bridge in the small outback town of Mululuk mysteriously collapses, the town is cut off from the world, and its citizens from each other. As the locals try to work out why the bridge fell and what it will take to replace it, old rivalries, forgotten romances and primitive drives come to the fore.

'Teenaged Rachel has come from ‘the city’ to stay with her uncle after her home life has fallen apart, and she quickly becomes involved in the quest for the truth about the bridge. Father Nott, the local Franciscan priest, is trying to get the hysterical townsfolk to see sense, particularly his gossip-mongering friend Gussy. Shane, Janice and Craig find themselves at the heart of a devastating love triangle, with deadly ramifications that will reverberate far beyond the three of them. And the mysterious Charlie, a scruffy, charismatic alcoholic with a dark past, has a terrifying idea about what it takes to keep a bridge standing.

'In a town that keeps its secrets like it builds its houses – underground – Charlie’s is the most dangerous of all.

'Wry, rich and unsettling, All Fall Down is a starkly Australian gothic novel about a community divided, and a chilling, archaic belief about what must be done to reunite it.' (Publication summary)