Description

Leisl and her daughter, Else, have their own language – of scientific facts and poetic echoes, the back and forth of birds. As the country is reclaimed by rains they escape the city, returning to the Limesay’s family home on a distant peninsula. Seasons become extreme. Else adapts, thriving in the wet and warming world. In Else, Leisl sees herself – her father and grandmother – as the past becomes present, and present: past. 

But flash floods are followed by more weather events, and the pair are forced further and further down the Ninch.

Else is published under Spineless Wonders’ ES-Press imprint.

Events

Thursday, 16 Oct, 7.30pm online Writers on Writers, Rose Michael & Bonny Cassidy. Register here.

Saturday, 18 Oct, 1pm, ‘Writing the Climate Crisis’ panel, The Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival. Tix here.

Thursday, 27 Nov, 6pm for 6.30pm, Else book launch with Briohny Doyle, Gleebooks, Sydney. Register here.

Monday 8 December, 6 for 6.30pm Else book launch, Merri Creek Tavern, 111 High St, Northcote. Register here.

Praise

‘Else feels modest but quietly radical: a mother–daughter story that listens, names debts to Country and imagines hope as something practised.’

–Caitlin Macdonald, The Conversation

‘Locale, language and literary convention are rewrought in a near-future world battered by climate catastrophe’

–Cameron Woodheard, The Age

‘the most astonishing aspect of the story is Michael’s experimental prose: leaping, lyrical, delighting in wordplay’

–Jane Sullivan, ABR

‘Her ingenious word play remind[s] me of the way Patrick White forces his readers to pause, focus on a word that seems missing or out of place, but isn’t.’

–Lisa Hill, ANZLitLovers

‘an Australian saga of seven generations, Rose Michael has written such a believable sci fi tale’

–Jan Goldsmith, 3CR

‘a poetic ode to our continent’s natural beauty … the kaleidoscopic ways in which one can learn, connect and be’

–Jess Zanoni, TripleR

‘a lyrical, tumbling book, bending an old language to a new reality’

–Marian Matta, Dandenong Literary Festival

‘Michael gives us much to ponder in terms of the problematic notion of “progress” and the colonisation of stolen land.’

–Madeleine Gray, The Saturday Paper

‘This genre-bending work of eco-fiction blends experimental prose, poetry and speculative fiction to explore themes of place, motherhood and ancestral belonging.’

–Alex Durac, Books+Publishing

‘a sort of colonial-settler dreaming … to remodel language and decentre and expand our understanding of the human.’

–Cameron Woodheard, The Age

‘Else is novel in all senses of the word. … it is a novel of hope, a lovesong to an earth that adapts and is endlessly alive.’

–Christine Balint

‘In Else, Rose Michael reconstructs the eco-apocalypse genre … her novel finds its drama on the divergent and endless path of adaptation. Michael makes these themes matter in every resonant sentence:  through echolalic rhyme, pun, inner speech and body language, she listens to her characters with fluidity and humility.’

–Bonny Cassidy

Else ‘uses the tools of speculative fiction and genre to push the boundaries of the literary novel into new and fertile territory … a remarkably intimate and personal book, written with real tenderness and care for the characters at its heart’

–James Bradley

‘Else is an enchantment in every line. Rose Michael is one of one.’

–Hollen Singleton

‘Unlike anything I have ever read.’

–Briohny Doyle

‘Michael’s experimental structure and prose will sing you into a state of knowing the lives, the breath, the very heartbeats, of characters within the vast fabric of time and place.’

–Carmel Bird

‘A singular work deeply concerned with relationships, those we have with ourselves, our environment and our pasts.’

–Romy Ash

About the Author

ROSE MICHAEL’s first novel, The Asking Game, was a runner-up for the Vogel and received an Aurealis honourable mention. An early extract from her second, The Art of Navigation, was shortlisted for a Conjure award and published in Review of Aus Fiction. She has published spec fic in Island, Griffith Review, Meanjin, Best Australian Stories and spec crit in The Conversation, Sydney Review of Books, Reading Like an Australian Writer. Experiments towards her new novel, Else – out in December with Spineless Wonders – have been published in international journals Antipodes and Speculative Nonfiction.

Cover Artwork: Bettina Kaiser
Cover image: Toni Roberts 2006 sun file #4

Distribution inquiries:

Our titles are distributed by NewSouth Books through Alliance Distribution Services:
Tel: 02 4390 1300
Email: adscs@alliancedist.com.au
www.newsouthbooks.com.au