I am reading an absolutely fascinating book called Soon at the moment, and it just so happens that I have a spare ARC of it to give away:
This is the blurb:
An almost deserted town in the middle of nowhere, Nebulah’s days of mining and farming prosperity – if they ever truly existed – are long gone. These days even the name on the road sign into town has been removed. Yet for Pete, an ex-policeman, Milly, Li and a small band of others, it’s the only place they have ever felt at home. One winter solstice, a strange residual and mysterious mist arrives, that makes even birds disappear. It is a real and potent force, yet also strangely emblematic of the complacency and unease that afflicts so many of our small towns, and the country that Murphy knows so well. Partly inspired by the true story of Wittenoom, the ill-fated West Australia asbestos town, Soon is the story of the death of a haunted town, and the plight of the people who either won’t, or simply can’t, abandon all they have ever had. With finely wrought characters and brilliant plotting, it is a taut and original novel, where the people we come to know, and those who are drawn to the town’s intrigue, must ultimately fight for survival.
Soon is Lois Murphy’s first novel, but she has won awards for her writing, including the Northern Territory Literary Award and the Sisters in Crime Best New Talent Prize. Soon was the winner of the Tasmanian Premier’s Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript, This is what the judges said about it:
A dark and powerful novel that takes the reader on a journey through a disturbingly new and hostile world. Lois’s characters carry their old ways into this new order with grave consequences if they don’t heed the signs. Her haunting and persuasive tale which nods at the tropes of genre fiction while subverting and elevating them heralds a compelling new talent.
I can already see why they thought so, even though I’m only up to page 80.
Update, 6 o’clock the next morning. I’ve just finished reading it, my heart is still pounding!
Update, later: here’s my (no spoilers) review.
HOW TO ENTER
Be in it to win it! Anyone with an Australian postal address is eligible. Please indicate your interest in the Comments box below and I’ll select a winner using a random generator round about the middle of next month.
All entries from readers with an Australian postcode for delivery will be eligible but it is a condition of entry that if you are the winner, you must contact me with a postal address by the deadline that will be specified in the blog post that announces the winner. (I’ll redraw if this deadline isn’t met).
Good luck everybody!
PS If you want to pre-order the book, here’s the link Soon
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Yes please!
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By: familyunfazed on August 30, 2017
at 11:08 pm
I’ve seen those road signs, to the place which must not be named. Put me in your draw, please.
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By: wadholloway on August 30, 2017
at 11:32 pm
I read last night when I was researching this that there are still three people living there…
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 11:49 am
If you say it’s fascinating Lisa, then it must be good so of course I’ll enter and hope Lady Luck favours me. Can never have too many good books. Thanks for the chance.
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By: Robin Dawson on August 31, 2017
at 12:30 am
Sounds wonderful! Please put me in the draw
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By: Annette Marfording on August 31, 2017
at 3:51 am
my interest was caught by that phrase in the blurb about complacency in the small towns – what are they complacent about?
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By: BookerTalk on August 31, 2017
at 4:03 am
Karen, the story is partly inspired by events at West Australian town called Wittenoom, a town that mined asbestos and is now so dangerous that people are warned not to go there because, as you probably know, even the slightest contact with asbestos fibres can causes mesothelioma – and yet there are still people living there, refusing to leave, complacently believing that everything will be ok.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 6:11 am
Ah I understand. I have some sympathy if theyve lived there al their lives but in the face of scientific evidence about what this is doing, trusting to luck seems a bit ostrich like
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By: BookerTalk on September 1, 2017
at 1:57 am
Yes, I think that would be definitely be one of the talking points in book group discussions. Murphy does a very good job of teasing out the psychology of the stayers. The Cambodian woman, for example, has lost her husband and sons on the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, and so for her, after starting all over in Australia, from nothing, the idea of doing that again, leaving everything behind and beginning again with nothing, is too much to contemplate. And maybe, deep down, even though she’s made a new life for herself, she feels that if her time comes, well, maybe there’s not that much to live for anyway.
I think with the stayers in Wittenoom, it’s more a case of a grim kind of fatalism.
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By: Lisa Hill on September 1, 2017
at 8:28 am
I bet that does indeed provoke good discussion
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By: BookerTalk on September 4, 2017
at 2:02 am
I’m in!
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By: karenlee thompson on August 31, 2017
at 5:05 am
Good luck everybody!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 6:13 am
Sounds compelling! Count me in :)
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By: Jenny Snell (@wellreadisjen) on August 31, 2017
at 8:59 am
Me too please.
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By: Fay Kennedy on August 31, 2017
at 9:08 am
[…] I said in my post last night advertising the giveaway for this debut novel by Lois Murphy, Soon is fascinating reading. What I didn’t know when I […]
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By: Soon, by Lois Murphy | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 31, 2017
at 11:34 am
How have I missed any knowledge of this book?! I think I have been away too often. It sounds interesting. I will have a go at your giveaway and might look it up whether I win or not. Thank you for the chance. Our book club is going to chase up the new Richard Flanagan for Oct. So many new books all the time!! 🐧🐧🐧
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By: travellinpenguin on August 31, 2017
at 11:43 am
It’s very new, not out till October. But I think I saw somewhere that Lois Murphy will be featured at the Tas Writers Festival, so maybe you can catch up with her there? (I can’t go, I was going to because I haven’t been to Tassie for ages but it’s a friend’s 60th and I can’t miss that).
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 11:48 am
Count me in please! It sounds terrific.
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By: MST on August 31, 2017
at 12:58 pm
Thanks for running a book giveaway, please count me in….come in Spinner!
Cheers
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By: Catherine Davison on August 31, 2017
at 4:41 pm
This book sounds like my kind of book. Count me in, please
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By: arcticcrocodile on August 31, 2017
at 5:26 pm
Done!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 5:27 pm
I’m a Dane who has been following your blog for years now. Have a bif interest in Australian literature. Will be able to provide an Australian address, should I be the lucky person.
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By: Anette Weisz Knudsen on August 31, 2017
at 7:10 pm
Hello Anette, lovely to hear from you like this!
Sure, as long as I don’t have to pay overseas postage to get it to you, that will be fine. Good luck!
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By: Lisa Hill on August 31, 2017
at 8:41 pm
SOON I will win and learn more about this mystery.
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By: Alana Ashford on September 1, 2017
at 12:39 am
Ha ha, good one! Good luck, Alana!
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By: Lisa Hill on September 1, 2017
at 8:22 am
I’d love to read and review on my book blog. Thanks for the opportunity!
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By: Michelle (inthegoodbooksblog) on September 1, 2017
at 6:10 am
Good luck, Michelle:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 1, 2017
at 8:02 am
Too too intriguing, please please pick me.
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By: M Dawn Lonnie on September 6, 2017
at 4:40 pm
Good luck, Dawn:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 6, 2017
at 8:23 pm
Yes please :)
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By: Abby L on September 6, 2017
at 11:35 pm
You’re in, Anny:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 7, 2017
at 2:40 am
I would love to win. Thank you!
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By: Elisabeth Martins on September 9, 2017
at 12:00 am
Good luck, I’ll be doing the draw next week:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 9, 2017
at 4:57 pm
Staying at my Mum’s in Brisbane at the moment, so please count me in!
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By: Glenda on September 11, 2017
at 12:52 pm
Good luck Glenda:)
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By: Lisa Hill on September 11, 2017
at 1:50 pm
Rhobyn burns. Sounds like a great book
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By: Rhobyn on September 11, 2017
at 9:02 pm
Good luck, I’m drawing it tomorrow!
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By: Lisa Hill on September 11, 2017
at 9:23 pm
yes please
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By: Scot Barker on September 13, 2017
at 7:18 am
I’m sorry, the giveaway is closed and I’ve drawn the winner. Better luck next time!
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By: Lisa Hill on September 13, 2017
at 9:20 am
Yes please. Count me in 3152
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By: Jacoba on September 15, 2017
at 12:01 pm
I’m sorry, Jacoba, the giveaway is closed now, and I drew it on Monday.
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By: Lisa Hill on September 15, 2017
at 12:21 pm
[…] I said in my post last night advertising the giveaway for this debut novel by Lois Murphy, Soon is fascinating reading. What I didn’t know when I […]
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By: Soon, by Lois Murphy #BookReview | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on January 27, 2018
at 2:53 pm