We asked debut novelist Anna Downes some of our burning questions about her brillaint new thriller The Safe Place. Check it out below:

‘A dark and wonderful debut that lulls you in with beautiful prose and complex, believable characters, then beats you over the head with a killer plot and a thrilling climax. Everyone will be talking about this book!’ Christian White, author of The Wife and the Widow

More About The Safe Place

For struggling actress Emily Proudman, life in London is not working out as planned – in fact, it’s falling apart. So when she is offered a live-in job working for a wealthy family on their luxurious coastal property in France, she jumps at the opportunity to start over.

The estate is picture-perfect, and its owners exude charisma and sophistication. But as Emily gets to know the family, their masks begin to slip, and what at first appears to be a dream come true turns out to be a prison from which none of them will ever escape – unless Emily can find a way to set them all free.

‘The tension ratchets up and up in this beautifully paced thriller – an outstanding debut, populated by complex and sympathetic characters. You’ll be thinking about them long after you’ve finished reading.’ Chris Hammer, author of Silver

About Anna Downes

Anna Downes grew up in Sheffield, UK. She studied drama at Manchester before winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and moving to London to pursue an acting career. Her acting credits include EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, and Dalziel and Pascoe, as well as a long-running stage production of The Dresser in London’s West End.

In 2009 she left to go travelling with her Australian partner, a trip that included a stint working as a live-in housekeeper on a remote French estate, where the seeds for The Safe Place were sown. Anna now lives on the Central Coast with her husband and two children. The Safe Place is being published simultaneously in the US and the UK, with several other countries to follow.

Signed copies of The Safe Place are available in very limited quantites at our BOOK FACE Erina Fair store. Email our friendly staff via the button below to reserve your copy!

We caught up with Queensland local Trent Jamieson to ask him five Quickfire Questions about his beautiful new children’s book The Giant and the Sea…

‘You never know where the sentences will take you, but I keep having so much fun finding out…’

What inspired you to write The Giant and the Sea?

The opening sentence “There was a giant who stood on the shore of the sea” which sprang from a nap – which has to have been the most productive nap of my life. I had it stuck in my head while I was working on a novel (see question 5), and I decided I needed to know where it went. I followed the sentences, and the rhythm of the story, and I was surprised where it led me. Which is always (well, mostly) a good thing!

Obviously, the themes of the book around climate change have been playing on my mind, and I’d like to think I’m far from the only one, it’s just one of my responses was to write a story about a brave girl and a giant.

This is such a beautiful and deeply moving story. What message do you want kids to take away with them after reading The Giant and the Sea?

That even in the darkest times there is still hope but also to question perceived or comfortable wisdom. Often our culture gets by on ignoring uncomfortable truths and that’s where stories can help us: they’re a safe space to start a discussion.

We’ve had our giants (scientists) warning us for decades that the climate catastrophe was coming. It’s well past time that we listened to them as a community and did something.

Responding to climate change means making big changes to our society, and none of them are going to be easy. But if we do it together, as a community, we can make it easier for everyone. There’s a brave girl in this story, but I believe we can all be brave and if we work together bravely and compassionately we can change the world for the better.

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. How did you end up working with Rovina Cai and what was that process like?

I adore Rovina’s artwork, and I am so lucky that she agreed to illustrate the story.

She was the artist that I wanted from the start of the project. From the moment my agent Alex Adsett suggested her and I checked out her work I knew that she would be the perfect fit for the book. The stars aligned so that she could do the work, and now I can’t even imagine anyone else illustrating it. It was wonderful seeing the work develop, though I didn’t see much of the artwork until late in the process. The words came first, then the art, and then in the final stages of editing we tweaked a few things amplify the resonance between the words and the pictures.

I’m no artist so I was happy to be a bystander looking on in wonder at that side of things. I was lucky too that Hachette treated me so gently, the editorial team of Suzanne O’Sullivan and Sophie Mayfield were fabulous. I didn’t really know what to expect with a picture book, but I hadn’t expected it to be so much fun. Hannah Janzen did the design work on the book, and that really brought everything together.

As you can see, a picture book is a team effort. We’ve all made something that I am very proud of, and very proud to share with these wonderful artists.

What are three books that have inspired you or changed your life in some way?

Oh, that’s so hard! I feel like every book is a tiny detonation inside you that pushes you somewhere new.

The three I’m going to pick today are The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, I love the entire series of Earthsea books, but this book had me from such an early age (it wasn’t a tiny detonation it was a supernova), and it still teaches me things about rhythm and concision and the deep truths in fantasy fiction. And the dragons are incredible!

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. I adore this book, suggested to me by my school librarian Mr Foley when I was about seven. I’ve read it many times since my primary school years, and it always surprises me. The last time I read it was to my newborn daughter while she slept in my arms. While I wish it had more female characters (well, any, to be honest) it is a wonderful adventure that is also a glorious critique of the insidious nature of greed. (Also, Smaug, and riddles!)

Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees This book written in 1926, is even older than The Hobbit, but it is one of my favourite books about fairies, fairy fruit, and the weird nature of our relationship with creativity. It’s a book that always manages to deliver a new thing on each reading too. ‘

So, I guess I am drawn to stories with a preponderance of dragons, magic and fairies.

If I was to mention more recent books the Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox has just started doing something to my story brain (more fairies). Bone Clocks by David Mitchell really taught me how to tell a fantasy story that was also deeply focused on climate change (though you don’t know that to the end #slightspoiler).

Congratulations on publishing your first picture book! What’s next for you?

Thank you! The Giant and the Sea has been in the works since 2017 and I’m still surprised by it!

As for what’s next, I have a few picture books (some extremely silly) in various stages of draft, so we’ll see. I have a novel (that I can’t talk about at the moment) that will hopefully see the light next year (I’ve been working on it for what feels like a very long time).

I’ve also just “finished” a draft of a big fantasy novel, that I’ve already started playing with again, and which I think is going to grow even bigger. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything as wholeheartedly fantastical, and the writing has given me a lot of joy; the characters in it have been entertaining me so much. Hopefully I can find a home for it too.

You never know where the sentences will take you, but I keep having so much fun finding out.

More About The Giant and the Sea

A stunningly beautiful and powerful take on climate change, standing up for what you believe in, and the power of hope. With lyrical text by acclaimed author Trent Jamieson and illustrations by CBCA Award-winner Rovina Cai that will resonate long after reading. For fans of Shaun Tan and Armin Greder.

A giant stands on the shore, watching the sea. She never moves, never speaks, until the day she turns to a little girl and says, 'The sea is rising.'

The brave girl takes the message to the town. But when the people refuse to listen, the giant must find another way to save them.

Perfect for the children of the Climate Strike, this is a lyrical and deeply moving story about climate change, standing up for what you believe in, and the power of hope.

Discover The Magic Hidden Between The Pages…

Our Book of the Month for June 2020 is The Spill by Imbi Neeme

We asked debut novelist, and winner of the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize, Imbi Neeme some of our burning questions about her new novel The Spill. Check it out below:

More About The Spill

From debut novelist, and winner of the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize, Imbi Neeme comes The Spill, an exploration of the moments - small and large - upon which our lives can pivot.

In 1982, a car overturns on a remote West Australian road. Nobody is hurt, but the impact is felt for decades. For sisters Nicole and Samantha this moment will echo through their lives and continually affect their responses to individual experiences and to each other.

Inspired by a similar event in Neeme’s childhood, The Spill examines how all our memories are fictionalised to some degree. By interweaving pieces from the sisters’ past with their present day Neeme reveals the spaces that exist between events, experiences and memory.

It is through this fickleness of memory that Neeme also delves into the complex relationship between sisters. Through seemingly unconnected episodes, from significant events as well as small moments in time, scattered throughout the novel, the relationship between them is slowly revealed in all its forms; envious, joyful, protective, regretful but most of all loving.

The Spill is a captivating depiction of the bond between sisters and a family that find its way back to one another.

“Brilliantly comic and tender, this is a sharp and intimate portrayal of that most mystifying of things: family. Neeme gives us a real world; of chaotic fragments drawn with charm and compassion. These are people, like us, making lives of their messes.” - Robert Lukins

About Imbi Neeme

Imbi Neeme is a recovering blogger, impending novelist and compulsive short story writer. Her manuscript The Spill was awarded the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize.

She was the recipient of the 2019 Henry Handel Richardson Fellowship at Varuna for excellence in Short Story Writing. Her short fiction has won prizes in the 2019 Newcastle Short Story Awards, the 2018 Boroondara Literary Awards, and has been shortlisted for the 2018 Peter Carey Short Story Award.

Her first manuscript, The Hidden Drawer, made the judges’ commended list in the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Awards and was selected for the 2015 Hachette/ Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program.

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