An intensely satisfying novel that celebrates the short richly lived life of Australian artist, Clarice Beckett.
Co-winner of the 2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
Night Street is the passionate story of a young painter, Clarice Beckett, who defies society's strict conventions and indifferent art critics alike and leads an intense private and professional life. With her extraordinary talent for making simple city and seascapes haunting and mysteriously revelatory, Clarice paints prolifically and lives largely, overcoming the seemingly confined existence as the spinster daughter in the parental home.
Night Street began with Thornell's first encounter with the paintings of Melbourne artist Clarice Beckett (1887-1935) at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The subtle power of Clarice's highly atmospheric, enigmatic landscapes enabled her to imagine Clarice's inner life and shape an extraordinary novel.
Born in 1975, Kristel Thornell grew up in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. She studied French and Italian at the University of Sydney and spent a year in Italy, researching the author Giorgio Bassani and then teaching English as a foreign language. She has lived in North America for much of the last ten years, in Mexico, the United States and Canada, where she completed an M.A. in English at the University of New Brunswick. She has also taught Italian language and literature, French and Spanish, and has published reviews, poetry and fiction in a range of journals, including Meanjin, Overland, Southerly and Island. For the last two and half years, she has been working on a PhD in Creative Writing, supervised by Nicholas Jose, first through the University of Adelaide and now with the University of Western Sydney. Kristell is currently living in the US.
NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011: New Writing Shortlist
Night Street
$23.99 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
An intensely satisfying novel that celebrates the short richly lived life of Australian artist, Clarice Beckett.
Co-winner of the 2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
Night Street is the passionate story of a young pain... Buy or find out more →
Having Cried Wolf
$24.95 – Paperback book / Affirm
Small towns harbour secrets. Rising, receding and returning like the tides lapping the fictional coastal town of Kinsale, the stories in this collection revolve around Alice and Grace, friends since childhood, who grow t... Buy or find out more →
Glissando: A Melodrama
$27.95$0.00 – Paperback book / Sleepers Publishing
When it comes to looking back over his life, Archie Fliess has got some understanding to do. So begins a sprawling reflection on Archie's life during the early twentieth century, starting the day the fortunes of Archie a... Buy or find out more →
Traitor
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Text Publishing
What would make a soldier betray his country?
In the battle-smoke and chaos of Gallipoli, a young New Zealand soldier helps a Turkish doctor fighting to save a boy’s life. Then a shell bursts nearby; the blast that shoul... Buy or find out more →
Utopian Man
$23.99 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
An exquisite historical novel about a remarkable man who chose his own path, charming and scandalising others in equal measure.
Co-winner of the 2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
'Really impressive, vivid and enjoyab... Buy or find out more →
The Body In The Clouds
$29.99 – Trade paperback / Allen & Unwin
What if you looked up and out of the corner of your eye you saw something so marvellous, so extraordinary, that it transformed time and space forever? An extraordinary, luminous debut novel that weaves together three liv... Buy or find out more →
NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011: Fiction Shortlist
The English Class
$32.95 – Paperback book / Transit Lounge
'an utterly authentic story which deepens our understanding of both Chinese and Australian culture, an epic journey across languages and cultures, recounted with all Ouyang Yu’s compelling honesty and passion.’ Alex Mill... Buy or find out more →
Night Street
$23.99 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
An intensely satisfying novel that celebrates the short richly lived life of Australian artist, Clarice Beckett.
Co-winner of the 2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
Night Street is the passionate story of a young pain... Buy or find out more →
Lovesong
$26.99 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
Seeking shelter in a Parisian cafe from a sudden rainstorm, John Patterner meets the exotic Sabiha and his carefully mapped life changes forever. Resonant of the bestselling Conditions of Faith, Alex Miller's keenly awai... Buy or find out more →
Parrot and Olivier in America
$49.95$29.95 – Hardcover book / Hamish Hamilton
Short listed for the American Book Award.
Olivier is a young aristocrat, one of an endangered species born in France just after the Revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but ... Buy or find out more →
Traitor
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Text Publishing
What would make a soldier betray his country?
In the battle-smoke and chaos of Gallipoli, a young New Zealand soldier helps a Turkish doctor fighting to save a boy’s life. Then a shell bursts nearby; the blast that shoul... Buy or find out more →
Utopian Man
$23.99 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
An exquisite historical novel about a remarkable man who chose his own path, charming and scandalising others in equal measure.
Co-winner of the 2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
'Really impressive, vivid and enjoyab... Buy or find out more →