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Coming Rain

Coming Rain

Stephen Daisley

  • awardWinner, Acorn Foundation Literary Award (Ockham New Zealand Book Awards), New Zealand, 2016
  • awardShortlisted, Voss Literary Prize, 2016
  • awardLonglisted, Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2016
  • awardLonglisted, International DUBLIN Literary Award, Ireland, 2017
  • They returned to the main part of the shed and it was Lew’s turn to sharpen his cutters. The woolshed now bright and well lit. Painter walked to his stand and connected the handpiece to the down-rod. He drizzled oil over the comb and the cutter, adjusted the tension and pulled the rope to engage the running gear.  The handpiece buzzed and he studied it for a moment, pulled the rope again to disengage the running gear. Repeated the  process with his spare handpiece. Filled the oil can and stepped to the catching-pen door, leaned on it and looked at the sheep in the pen. Lit a cigarette, waiting for Lew.

    Western Australia, the wheatbelt. Lew McLeod has been travelling and working with Painter Hayes since he was a boy. Shearing, charcoal burning—whatever comes. Painter made him his first pair of shoes. It’s a hard and uncertain life but it’s the only one he knows.

    But Lew’s a grown man now. And with this latest job, shearing for John Drysdale and his daughter Clara, everything will change.

    Stephen Daisley writes in lucid, rippling prose of how things work, and why; of the profound satisfaction in hard work done with care, of love and friendship and the damage that both contain.

    Reviews 

    Australian
    Australian Book Review

    Interviews

    Radio New Zealand
    Listener, on winning the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, Acorn Foundation Literary Award 

    Stephen Daisley
    About the Author

    Stephen Daisley was born in 1955 and grew up in the North Island of New Zealand. He has worked on sheep and cattle stations, on oil and gas construction sites and as a truck driver, among many other jobs.

    His first novel, Traitor, won the 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. Coming Rain won the Ockham Prize in 2015. Stephen lives in...

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    Extent:
    320pp
    Format:
    Paperback
    Text publication date:
    22 April 2015
    ISBN:
    9781922182029
    AU Price:
    $29.99
    NZ Price:
    $37.00
    Australian
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    Praise for Stephen Daisley
    andComing Rain

    ‘One of the finest debut novels I have read. Indeed it’s one of the best novels I have read in recent years.’

    ‘The minutiae of the woolshed and animal behaviour are brought to life with skill and affection.’

    ‘[Daisley’s] evocative prose nails the rural zeitgeist and the mystery of mateship.’

    ‘This is a novel to make you think, and wonder about a world that few of us will ever know.’

    ‘This is a challenging and brave book…[Daisley] writes with a maturity and insight wrought of experience. His writing is at once cruel and gentle, graphically violent, including to animals, yet tender and beautiful.’

    Coming Rain shimmers with dusty red heat…Tune in to the distinctive rhythm of the prose and you’ll enjoy the rich, subtle rewards of a really good book.’

    ‘In Coming Rain this late beginner continues to make his distinguished, solitary way, not least in reclaiming the rural societies of a half century ago, rendered so vividly that they seem keenly of the present, rather than past curiosities.’

    ‘There are moments of aching tenderness and heroism that will enrapture readers to the very end. Highly recommended.’

    ‘Some of [Daisley’s] most vivid writing. Here the minutiae of farm life are rendered with respect and sympathy…Moving and brilliant.’

    ‘Powerful masculine prose, brutal truths and unflinching truthfulness make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is evocative.’

    ‘Stephen Daisley has absorbed the Western Australian landscape and describes it evocatively…[His] writing style reminds me of Henry Lawson’s. Its short, sharp sentences and chapters, raw language and dialogue define the characters and the Outback in a grimly realistic but deeply humane way.’

    ‘Stephen Daisley writes with the potent economy of a short-story writer, and he triumphs with this visceral account that will linger in your mind long after the last page.’

    ‘[Coming Rain] has lingered in my mind all year, not least because one of the main characters is a dingo.’

    ‘I consider it a masterpiece…Coming Rain deserves its accolades.’

    ‘The book that I keep pressing into friends’ hands is Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley in which alternate chapters are narrated by a pregnant female dingo. Nothing short of genius.’

    ‘This is an astonishingly good read…The writing is spare, the landscape and relationships haunting—a beautiful and unforgettable read.’

    Other editions ofComing Rain
    • Coming Rain
      ebook
      ISBN: 9781925095029
      22 April 2015
      Buy ebook