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Melina Marchetta – Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil

Would you ever kill a human, Violette?’ he asked when she let him hold her switchblade for a moment. She smiled and it was all strange and twisted. Not in a bad way, just lopsided. Eddie thinks she has one of the best smiles he’s ever seen. ‘To protect my family,’ she said. ‘I’d kill anyone.’ 

Eddie Conlon and Violette Le Brac Zidane are on the run. Their tour bus has been blown-up killing one of their chaperones and two of their fellow students. The media are quick to identify Australian-raised Violette as the daughter of a convicted terrorist, but Eddie knows it couldn’t have been her. 

Suspended Chief Inspector Bashir Ortley, of the London MET, finds himself embroiled in the international investigation with his French counterpart Attal. Both men have teenage daughters who survived the bombing, but as they begin to unravel a twisted plot each of them must confront their own histories in a race against time to stop a second deadly attack. 

Because who were they if they couldn’t protect their children? 

Layla Bayat has her eyes set on a junior partnership in the law firm where she’s put up with sexism and racism for years. She’s finally moved on from the Packenham council estate she grew-up in and Jamal Sarraf, her first boyfriend. But when Ortley tracks her down, she knows there’s no escaping her past... 

Set against the unsettling backdrop of the refugee crisis in Calais and rising tensions around racism and religion in the UK, Melina Marchetta’s stunning crime fiction debut delves deep into the psychology of the persecuted, the perpetrators and the prosecutors – none of whom can be so easily labelled. 

 

‘A novel of great scope, of past and present, and above all, the Marchetta trademark of a fierce and loving heart.’ – MARKUS ZUSAK

 

With wry humour and profound social insight Marchetta scratches the surface of what it is that binds us together – in the face of unspeakable acts of terrorism, and its accompanying media coverage, when it seems as though fear has gathered enough power to challenge our ideology. 

Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil is a novel about the very issues that are the hallmarks of every one of Melina Marchetta’s best-selling books; family, belonging, identity, community – and about the choices we make when we can no longer go home, and the lengths we will go to in protecting our own. 

Melina Marchetta is the beloved Australian writer best known for her breakthrough debut bestseller, Looking for Alibrandi. She has since been published in 20 countries and won the Children’s Book Council Award twice, as well as the US Printz Award for On the Jellicoe Road. Her 2009 adult novel, The Piper’s Son was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and her fantasy trilogy, The Lumatere Chronicles was shortlisted for the inaugural 2015 Sara Douglass Book Series Award

As a script writer Melina has won the Australian Film Institute Award, the Independent Film Award, The NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Critic’s Circle award for her screenplay adaptation of Looking for Alibrandi. Melina has also written for the ABC TV drama, Dance Academy.

Tickets: $10 (includes a complimentary glass of wine or soft drink)

SOLD OUT

 

Earlier Event: November 23
Book Launch - Home Grown
Later Event: November 29
BOOK LAUNCH - So You Can See In The Dark