'A gripping, haunting work about the reverberations of a serial killer's crimes in the lives of everyday people.
'In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged with a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims' families, but its impact travels even further - into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes.
'Highway 13 takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more: through the investigation of the aftermath of this violence across time and place, from the killer's home town in country Australia to the tropical Far North, and to Texas and Rome, McFarlane presents an unforgettable, entrancing exploration of the way stories are told and spread, and at what cost.
'What damages, big and small, do these crimes incur? How do communities make sense of such atrocities? How does the mourning of families sit alongside the public fascination with terrible crimes? And can we tell true crime stories without putting the killers at the centre of the story?
'From the acclaimed author of The Sun Walks Down and The Night Guest comes a captivating account of loss and fear, and its extended echoes in individual lives.' (Publication summary)
A Chorus of Souls : Fiona McFarlane’s Discursive Theodicy
2024
28879611
2024
single work
podcast
'This week on The ABR Podcast Geordie Williamson reviews Highway 13, a collection of short stories by Fiona McFarlane. Each story is concerned with murder, that ‘ultimate de-creative act’, and might be thought of as true crime, given the real-world familiarity of characters, places, plots. Geordie Williamson is a literary critic, editor and the author of The Burning Library: Our greatest novelists lost and found. ' (Introduction)
'Jorge Luis Borges thought the appearance of a major new author or creative work should prompt a realignment of literature’s family tree. Fresh genealogies of influence suddenly manifested, while old antecedents could find themselves pruned to a nub. Borges knew that actions in the present can remake our sense of past and future both.' (Introduction)
'Brilliant stories about ordinary people all connected to a series of crimes.'
'Each of the 12 stories in Fiona McFarlane’s fourth book, Highway 13, relates to a serial killer’s crimes. Set in different times and places, McFarlane’s stories work loosely with the facts of seven murders in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney. The disappearance of a series of young travellers from 1989 remained a mystery until several years later when seven bodies were found in shallow forest graves. Ivan Milat, convicted of these “backpacker murders”, was a suspect in relation to scores of unsolved murders and disappearances, and the evidence suggests he did not always act alone. The brutality of the crimes, the testimony of survivor Paul Onions and Milat’s refusal to confess fuelled intense media and community fascination.' (Introduction)
'Fiona McFarlane is known for her gripping narratives of psychological complexity and haunted Australian spaces.'
'Brilliant stories about ordinary people all connected to a series of crimes.'
A Chorus of Souls : Fiona McFarlane’s Discursive Theodicy
2024
28879611
2024
single work
podcast
'This week on The ABR Podcast Geordie Williamson reviews Highway 13, a collection of short stories by Fiona McFarlane. Each story is concerned with murder, that ‘ultimate de-creative act’, and might be thought of as true crime, given the real-world familiarity of characters, places, plots. Geordie Williamson is a literary critic, editor and the author of The Burning Library: Our greatest novelists lost and found. ' (Introduction)
