The Rain Heron

‘The Rain Heron is genuinely and completely magnificent—a magical thing.’

Robert Lukins

‘Arnott expertly navigates the fraught relationships between humans and the natural world…This is a book that is not only a compelling, original read, but one that delivers hard truths that urgently need to be heard.’

Books+Publishing

‘The Rain Heron is exquisite. Reading it feels like hearing a legend from our past, from our near future; like remembering something you had always known but somehow forgotten. It is both fantastical and deeply true.’

Jane Rawson

‘Arnott weaves a narrative that feels both timely and timelessly engaging. A powerful meditation on human greed and frailty, The Rain Heron also leaves room for redemption. This bracing follow-up to Flames will reinforce Arnott’s reputation for unusual, risk-taking literary fiction.’

Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Australian Book Review

‘One of the very, very rare books that completely stunned me…Very beautiful and a little bit terrifying.’

Jock Serong

‘A searing exploration of the entanglement of internal and external nature, and the human mind’s unconscious pull towards dominating the natural world. Arnott is brilliant at writing the natural world.’

Kill Your Darlings

‘In The Rain Heron, Robbie Arnott has turned his gaze to civilisation’s need to control and understand the natural world. This is a book full of heart—it’s so richly imagined, inventive and beautifully written, with a strong message, but is never didactic. It’s like nothing I've read and Arnott has quickly become one of my favourite authors.’

J. P. Pomare

‘The Rain Heron is literary art. Robbie Arnott has deftly crafted an audacious idea into an original, compelling work…Flames is shrouded in a gothic, macabre Tasmanian setting. I thought it brilliant. The Rain Heron is even better.’

Australian

‘As in his previous novel, Flames, Arnott is uncommonly adept at imbuing his work with a rich, lived-in feel, a world close to our own, filled with parallel myths and coinciding calamities. And as he did in Flames, Arnott reminds us he is one of the best prose stylists currently working in Australia.’

Saturday Paper

‘Full of enchanted realism…[Arnott] writes on behalf of the fierce dedication necessary for anyone to be her best self. This is a lofty ambition but it is what great stories demand from us: figurative blood, figurative tears, and a commitment to witness the world in all its wonder.’

Age

‘The real deal…Phenomenally original, an exquisite way with words.'

Bri Lee

‘The Rain Heron confirms [Robbie Arnott’s] place as one of Australia’s leading young novelists…As myths collide with reality, Arnott’s imaginative dark novel ends with a sobering uplift, reaffirming that ultimately relationships and kindness matter.’

Canberra Times

‘Unsettling…Arnott writes vibrantly about the harsh wonder of nature, his vivid characters becoming almost animal themselves.’

Observer

‘Arnott’s eco-fable, set in a politically broken near future, explores the constant push-pull that exists between our capacity for enchantment and our need to exploit what we find…It’s sad and satisfying.’

The Times

‘Arnott’s writing is clear and compelling, particularly in descriptions of the folkloric bird, with its “rain-smeared transparency”.’

New Yorker

‘A powerful story, beautifully rendered.’

Los Angeles Review of Books

‘At once an urgent thriller and an elegiac fable, this mesmerizing tale is as lyrical as it is suspenseful.’

Kirkus