Nock Loose

Joy is a gifted archer, a retired Olympian and a former stuntwoman on a cult Japanese tokusatsu show. Raised by a feckless grifter, her home is Bodkins Point. For 150 years, this small town has hosted an annual ultra-violent medieval festival called ‘Agincourt’. During the festival, Bodkins Point transforms – assuming a parallel identity that plays tug-of-war with the way its townsfolk live for the rest of the year.

In the aftermath of a terrible fire, Joy’s past and the town’s dark history are set on a collision course as she takes the furious road to revenge.

In this screwball comedy revenge thriller, Game of Thrones meets Wake in Fright meets Kill Bill meets The Simpsons — Nock Loose is like nothing else in OzLit.

‘Marlborough is that rarest thing: a dangerous Australian writer. Read them before it’s too late.’ Michael Winkler

‘Mad, rad and merciless: Australia’s own energy-drink-era Vonnegut.’ Sam George-Allen

‘Nock Loose runs a rake over decades of D-Grade Australian culture and draws a narrative between all that was caught between the tines. Feeling like the cinematic amalgam of a nineties daytime talk show, an op shop joke book, and a hijacked reddit thread, only Marlborough could (or would) write this book.’ Max Easton

‘Patrick Marlborough’s Nock Loose is a wryly post-modern and cynically satirical novel that hits the ground running and never lets up … audacious, macabre and deeply felt.’ Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, Books+Publishing