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'Not since Jasper Jones have I been so utterly spellbound by the next ball, the state of the pitch and the intricacies of scoring' KATE MILDENHALL
'What a wonderful book. What a read. A love story to cricket, to families, to craft and to music. Beautifully written' MICHAEL BRISSENDEN
'Heartfelt . . . Uplifting . . . Simpson explores family, priorities, the pain of making difficult choices and the knowledge that it's never too late to start over. This is an uplifting book that will satisfy both cricket lovers and readers who enjoy loving stories about beginning again' BOOKS+PUBLISHING
WILLOWMAN
'Willowman may well be the perfect Australian novel' ~ Readings
'A fabulous novel. Inga Simpson brings all her craft and sensitivity to a story that has never been told, and now that she has done it, it feels like this was a story that was needing to be told. With her art, Inga joins the likes of Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy in the vanguard of cricket's exciting new revolution. Long may it last' MALCOLM KNOX
'Joyous storytelling at its best. I was enthralled' SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life.
'I bloody loved this - a gorgeous, heartbreaking examination of so much more than cricket' ROBBIE ARNOTT, author of Limberlost.
'Beguiling and entertaining' PETER LALOR.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKPEOPLE ADULT FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 & THE ACT NOTABLE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023
From the critically acclaimed author of Mr Wigg comes an enthralling literary novel about a batmaker and a gifted young cricketer. For fans of Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.
Cricket has a willow heart. Batmakers around the world have tried everything, crafting bats from birch, maple, ash, even poplars . . . After two hundred years, cricket bat making is still beholden to a single species: Salix alba caerulea - or white willow
Reader Cricket Bats, one of the last traditional batmakers back in England, has a contemporary home in the Antipodes, with Allan Reader keeping the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne.
When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan's eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make him a Reader bat, selecting the best piece of willow he's harvested in years.
As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, leaving his equally talented sister's dreams in his wake, Allan's magical bat takes centre stage, awakening something in him. But can Allan's fledgling renaissance - hanging as it does on the magic of that bat - carry on after Harrow is stricken by injury and a strained personal life?
Willowman is a love letter to the art and beauty of cricket, and a meditation on craft. It shows what it takes to succeed at the highest level - and asks what makes a meaningful life?
Award-winning author Inga Simpson writes exquisitely about a national sport you will never view the same way again.
‘At times I read Willowman breathlessly, in its celebration of the highs and lows of cricket, the drama and daydream, the hope and despair, the catches and misses and final balls. Other times it was a balm for the nervous system, a reflection on the art of sport, the thrill of paying attention, the aliveness of the natural world. Moving, gripping, authentic, so tenderly-told; at once a page-turner and a life-giving meditation – Willowman is just magic’ Brooke Davis
LISTEN: WILLOWMAN on ABC RN's The Bookshelf