Books And Ideas At Montalto

The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane’s striking debut novel, has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and was the winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards' 2014 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing. It’s a gripping story of love, dependence, fear and the end of a life. Join Fiona for an evening of dinner, drinks and great literary company, as she talks about the inspiration behind her latest work –and her thoughts on its sensational reception - with Melbourne Writers Festival director Lisa Dempster. Presented in partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of Stiff, the very first Murray Whelan tale, Shane Maloney will be our latest guest at Montalto. Covering the breadth of his career, Shane will delve into the screen adaptations of Stiff and The Brush-Off and give us the low-down on what our Victorian hero is up to these days. Shane will be in conversation with Mary Delahunty. Presented in partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

Elliot Perlman’s first novel, Three Dollars, won the Age Book of the Year Award – an auspicious start to what has been an extraordinary international career. His second novel, Seven Types of Ambiguity, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin. With The Street Sweeper, Perlman cemented his reputation as a novelist who explores the burning social and political issues of our time. ‘Epic is a word that one must use carefully,’ wrote the Guardian, reviewing the book. ‘But this is an epic, in scope and moral seriousness.’ Presented in partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.

Alex Miller is the author of an astounding ten novels – and the owner of a swag of literary awards, including two Miles Franklins (for Journey to the Stone Country and The Ancestor Game). His beautifully wrought, intricately thoughtful, novels excavate the heart of the Australian psyche, including the complex relationship between indigenous and settler Australia. Miller’s work is often informed by his early experience working and travelling in outback Australia, as a stockman and various other jobs, after emigrating from England at the age of 16. Coal Creek, his much-praised latest novel, sprang directly from that time. Miller inhabits the inarticulate character of Bobby Blue, a stockman’s son who becomes deputy to the local constable – an outsider with cosmopolitan views that don’t fit with the land he has arrived in. It’s a novel of love, betrayal, and what happens when cultures clash and lines are crossed. Presented in partnership with Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove.