Publisher's synopsis

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert in a story of two friends, sisterly love and courage – a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted.

The Natural Way of Things is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. Most of all, it is the story of two friends, their sisterly love and courage.

With extraordinary echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale and Lord of the Flies, The Natural Way of Things is a compulsively readable, scarifying and deeply moving contemporary novel. It confirms Charlotte Wood’s position as one of our most thoughtful, provocative and fearless truth-tellers, as she unflinchingly reveals us and our world to ourselves.

Awards

  • Winner, Indie Book of the Year, 2016, AU
  • Winner, Indie Book Awards – Best Fiction, 2016, AU
  • Winner, The Stella Prize, 2016, AU
  • Winner, ABIA People’s Choice Awards – Literary Fiction Book of the Year, 2016, AU
  • Winner, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards – Fiction Category, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award – Fiction Category, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, ABA Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, Australian Book Industry Awards – Literary Fiction Book of the Year, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Category, 2016, AU
  • Short-listed, Barbara Jefferis Award, 2016, AU
  • Long-listed, Nita B Kibble Award for an Established Author, 2016, AU
  • Long-listed, Voss Literary Prize, 2016, AU
  • Highly Commended, James Tiptree Jr Literary Award, 2017, US
  • Shortlisted, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction – NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, 2017, AU

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