South East Arts, Headland Writers Festival and Candelo Books present

Nell Pierce WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN / VOGEL’S LITERARY AWARD 2022 In Conversation with Gabbie Stroud

A PLACE NEAR EDEN by Nell Pierce

Nell Pierce’s A PLACE CALLED EDEN is the 2022 winner of The Australian / Vogel’s Literary Award
that has launched the careers of over a hundred Australian authors. The award is one of Australia’s
richest and most prestigious awards for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of
thirty-five

‘Lyrical, gritty and compelling ... a story of haunted truth-seeking.’
- CAROLINE OVERINGTON, The Australian

‘A skilfully written, insightful novel ... absorbing and a pleasure to read.’
- HSU-MING TEO, previous winner of The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for Love and Vertigo

‘Compelling and original.’
- KATE ADAMS, bookseller

A Place Near Eden explores the concept of truth, the flaws in memory and family, and the Australian adoption and foster system set against the backdrop of the rugged Australian coastline.

How can we know the truth of our own lives?

This question troubles Matilda, as she looks back on her time with her foster brother, Sem. Matilda remembers long hours at the swimming pool. Celeste, a girl who lived downstairs with her artist mother. Sem disappearing for hours, then days. Her father yelling in the driveway. A car coming to take Sem away.

Five years later, Matilda lives in Melbourne with her mother. Sem is now a memory she has locked away. Until, at a party, Matilda reconnects with Celeste and then Sem. Celeste and Matilda move out to the coast near Eden to house-sit. Sem follows, but as the long summer drags on, the atmosphere in the house becomes claustrophobic. When Sem starts disappearing again, Matilda finds herself on unsteady ground, haunted by their past.

One morning, after a night at the pub, Matilda wakes up scratched and hungover, with no memory of the previous night. Sem is once again gone. This time, for good. Matilda becomes consumed by an obsession to know if she is responsible for Sem’s disappearance. But the truth struggles to fit into a neat story.

Part absorbing mystery, part riveting family drama, A Place Near Eden is a story of the pursuit of truth and the ways we fail those we love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Place Near Eden is Nell Pierce’s debut novel. The novel is located mainly in an area that has inspired Nell all of her life, the south coast of New South Wales.

Nell Pierce holds a Master of Fine Art in Fiction from the New School in New York City and has worked as an Associate Literary Agent and as a Legal Associate at the Family Court of Australia. She currently lives in Melbourne with her partner and baby daughter.

GABBIE STROUD is a freelance writer, novelist and recovering teacher. After years of juggling the demands of the primary classroom, she became disenchanted and disillusioned, eventually making the painful decision to leave the profession she had loved. In 2016, her critical commentary of Australia’s education system was published in Griffith Review’s Edition 51 Fixing the System, which went on to be shortlisted for a Walkley Award. Gabbie’s first novel, a Young Adult fiction—Measuring Up—was published by Scribe in 2009. Gabbie’s smash-hit memoir Teacher was shortlisted for Biography Book of the Year at the 2018 ABIA Awards and has contributed to the national dialogue on education. Her latest book, Dear Parents, is a passionate call to arms for all parents. Gabbie lives on the far south coast of New South Wales, where she co-parents her totally awesome girls—Olivia and Sophie.

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