Winner of the Stella Prize Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted Christina Stead Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award Observer Books of the Year 2016 'Beautiful and savage - think Atwood in the outback.' Paula Hawkins, Observer Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls, forced to wear strange uniforms, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious armed jailers and a 'nurse'. Doing hard labour under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each girl's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue - but when the food starts running out it becomes clear that the jailers have also become the jailed. The girls can only rescue themselves.

Author Biography

Charlotte Wood is the author of five novels and two books of non-fiction. The Natural Way of Things won the Stella Prize, the Indie Book of the Year and Indie Novel of the Year. This and other books have been shortlisted for many prizes including the Miles Franklin, Christina Stead and Queensland Literary Awards. The Australian described her as 'one of our most original and provocative writers'. She lives in Sydney.