South of Darkness

The epic tale of a convict boy's extraodinary journey from Australia's master storyteller.

Thirteen-year-old Barnaby Fletch is a bag-and-bones orphan in London in the late 1700s.

Barnaby lives on his wits and ill-gotten gains, on streets seething with the press of the throng and shadowed by sinister figures. Life is a precarious business.

When he hears of a paradise on the other side of the world- a place called Botany Bay - he decides to commit a crime and get himself transported to a new life, a better life.

To succeed, he must survive the trials of Newgate Prison, the stinking hull of a prison ship and the unknown terrors of a journey across the world.

And Botany Bay is far from the paradise Barnaby has imagined. When his past and present suddenly collide, he is soon fleeing for his life - once again.

"You will hardly read a more fascinating account of a convict's voyage to Australia" - Australian Book Review

About the author

John Marsden has written more than 40 books, mostly for teenagers and children, including Tomorrow When the War Began, So Much to Tell You, and Letters from the Inside. He has sold over five million books worldwide, and has won every major award in Australia for young people's fiction.

South of Darkness, written for adults, won the Christina Stead Award for Best Novel of 2015.

John Marsden
Published November 2015
Paperback
384 Pages
231mm x 154mm
ISBN 9781743535455