Whole Bright Year The

Product Description

In the summer of 1976 it's picking season on an Australian stone-fruit orchard run by Celia, a hard-working woman in her early forties. Years ago, when her husband was killed as a bystander in an armed robbery, Celia left the city and brought her newborn daughter Zoe to this farm for a secure life. Now sixteen, Zoe is a passionate, intelligent girl, chafing against her mother's protectiveness, yearning to find intensity and a bit of danger.

Barging into this world as itinerant fruit-pickers come a desperate brother and sister from Sydney. The hard-bitten Sheena has kidnapped her wild, ebullient eighteen-year-old brother Kieran and dragged him out west, away from trouble in the city. Kieran and Zoe are drawn to each other the instant they meet, sparking excitement, worry, lust, trouble . . .

How do we protect people we love? How do we bear watching them go out into the perilous world with no guarantee of safety or happiness? What bargains do people make with darkness in order to survive? From the creator of Offspring and author of Useful, The Whole Bright Year is a gripping, wry and tender novel about how holding on too tightly can cost us what we love.In the summer of 1976 it's picking season on an Australian stone-fruit orchard run by Celia, a hard-working woman in her early forties. Years ago, when her husband was killed as a bystander in an armed robbery, Celia left the city and brought her newborn daughter Zoe to this farm for a secure life. Now sixteen, Zoe is a passionate, intelligent girl, chafing against her mother's protectiveness, yearning to find intensity and a bit of danger.

Barging into this world as itinerant fruit-pickers come a desperate brother and sister from Sydney. The hard-bitten Sheena has kidnapped her wild, ebullient eighteen-year-old brother Kieran and dragged him out west, away from trouble in the city. Kieran and Zoe are drawn to each other the instant they meet, sparking excitement, worry, lust, trouble . . .

How do we protect people we love? How do we bear watching them go out into the perilous world with no guarantee of safety or happiness? What bargains do people make with darkness in order to survive? From the creator of Offspring and author of Useful, The Whole Bright Year is a gripping, wry and tender novel about how holding on too tightly can cost us what we love.
Debra Oswald is a writer for stage, television and fiction. She is co-creator and head writer of the first five seasons of successful TV series 'Offspring'. Debra won the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Award for the 'Offspring' telemovie script and the 2014 AACTA for Best TV Screenplay for the final episode of series 4. Her other television credits include award-winning episodes of 'Police Rescue', 'Palace of Dreams', 'The Secret Life of Us', 'Sweet and Sour' and 'Banana in Pyjamas'.

Debra's stage plays have been produced around Australia. Gary's House, Sweet Road and The Peach Season were all shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award and Dags has had many productions. Gary's House has been performed in translation in Denmark and Japan. Mr Bailey's Minder was produced in Philadelphia in 2008.

Debra has written three plays for young audiences - Skate, Stories in the Dark (NSW Premier's Play Award in 2008) and House on Fire.

She is the author of three 'Aussie Bite' books and six novels for teenage readers, and the novel Useful, published in 2015.