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Billie King: An endearing, rollicking, funny and original debut novel, perfect for fans of Boy Swallows Universe and The Dressmaker
Not yet published
Expected 30 Jun 26A blisteringly fast, fresh, funny and hugely entertaining novel of mothers, daughters and one gutsy wild colonial girl who gets caught up in Australia's last female bushranger's quest for revenge. Think Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife meets Trent Dalton.
'The thing is, when your neck's been getting stepped on for so long, you run out of air. Without air, the fight up and leaves you. What you need to see is someone who's gotten out from under the boot before, someone who's fought back and lived to tell the tale. And that someone's Dulcie James.'
1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling-down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna seems more furious than frightened, and it's the bushranger who's left shaken. Sparks fly between the women, and the trajectories of their lives are altered, especially for Anna as the next day, she vanishes.
Twelve years later, Anna's daughter, Billie King, is a girl ready to explode. With a missing mother, the rent in arrears and her alcoholic father's gambling debts to cover, she has no time for school. But when child services threaten to remove Billie from her father - and she learns he's really not her father - she must decide between continuing her search for her missing mother and keeping what's left of her family together. If she fails to hold onto her father, she'll be taken away and placed in a children's home, but if she doesn't find her missing mother, who will?
'This blazing novel had me gripped from first page to last. Wildly original, utterly tender, fiercely feminist and astoundingly good storytelling, I inhaled it.' Tess Woods, The Venice Hotel
'If Quentin Tarantino had set Kill Bill in the 1930's Aussie bush with a gun-slinging 12 year old, it would be something like Shannon Kelly White's debut novel, Billie King. This fast-paced, funny and brazen debut novel kicks ass. An irrepressible story about determination, friendship and of being a woman. May we all have some of the spirit and tenacity of Billie King.' Kerryn Mayne, Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder
'The thing is, when your neck's been getting stepped on for so long, you run out of air. Without air, the fight up and leaves you. What you need to see is someone who's gotten out from under the boot before, someone who's fought back and lived to tell the tale. And that someone's Dulcie James.'
1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling-down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna seems more furious than frightened, and it's the bushranger who's left shaken. Sparks fly between the women, and the trajectories of their lives are altered, especially for Anna as the next day, she vanishes.
Twelve years later, Anna's daughter, Billie King, is a girl ready to explode. With a missing mother, the rent in arrears and her alcoholic father's gambling debts to cover, she has no time for school. But when child services threaten to remove Billie from her father - and she learns he's really not her father - she must decide between continuing her search for her missing mother and keeping what's left of her family together. If she fails to hold onto her father, she'll be taken away and placed in a children's home, but if she doesn't find her missing mother, who will?
'This blazing novel had me gripped from first page to last. Wildly original, utterly tender, fiercely feminist and astoundingly good storytelling, I inhaled it.' Tess Woods, The Venice Hotel
'If Quentin Tarantino had set Kill Bill in the 1930's Aussie bush with a gun-slinging 12 year old, it would be something like Shannon Kelly White's debut novel, Billie King. This fast-paced, funny and brazen debut novel kicks ass. An irrepressible story about determination, friendship and of being a woman. May we all have some of the spirit and tenacity of Billie King.' Kerryn Mayne, Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder
Kindle Edition
Expected publication June 30, 2026
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