Moira McKinnon
Cicada
Allen & Unwin, 2014
A stunning novel of terror, love and survival in the most inhospitable country on earth. A white-knuckle chase story like no other - suspenseful, lyrical and breathtaking in equal measure.
A stunning novel of terror, love and survival in the greatest wilderness on earth. A lyrical, heartbreaking epic debut.
An isolated property in the middle of Western Australia, just after the Great War. An English heiress has just given birth and unleashed hell. Weakened and grieving, she realises her life is in danger, and flees into the desert with her Aboriginal maid. One of them is running from a murderer; the other is accused of murder.
Soon the women are being hunted across the Kimberley by troopers, trackers and the man who wants to silence them both. How they survive in the searing desert and what happens when they are finally found will take your breath away.
“An intense rush of a book … I’ve never felt so much like I was breathing a place.”
About the Author
Moira McKinnon graduated in medicine from the University of Western Australia and travelled widely as a specialist in population health. Her particular interests are emerging infectious diseases and the relationship with global and environmental health. She sees a loss for modern society in the casting away of the knowledge of indigenous cultures and believes understanding the relationship that indigenous people had with the land is an important part of the future of wellbeing of the environment and humankind.
Dr McKinnon’s essay, ‘Who Killed Matilda?’, on indigenous health, religion and social progress, was joint winner of the 2011 Calibre Prize and was published in the Australian Book Review.
Cicada is Moira’s first novel. She currently lives in Canberra with her husband and two children.
