Playwright, librettist, essayist, screenwriter, novelist, memoirist… Louis Nowra, it seems, has tried his hand at writing almost everything.
His new novel, Into That Forest, is ostensibly written for young adults, because Louis says he needed readers who could suspend their disbelief.
And why? Well, Hannah and Rebecca are two young girls in the 1880s caught in a terrible storm who end up orphaned, lost, and taken in by two Tasmanian tigers. Their years in the forest will mark their lives forever, as they spend their adulthoods trying to sing themselves back.
The story is about the brutality and kindness of people and animals, losing your language and the extinction of a species.
I spoke to Louis while he was out walking his dogs, and he explained just how similar the Tasmanian tiger is… to a chihuahua.
We also have a story for you by Elisa Parry. She's reading Illustrations, which was published in the Space issue of Voiceworks Magazine. It's about returning to and reimagining once-loved places of childhood.