Despite its connection to recent tragic events, this novel has actually been the work of many years. The idea for Torched came to me while watching news reports about the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009. The fires touched the lives of so many people around me in the Yarra Valley – including some of my own students and families at the high school where I taught. I’d like to thank the many survivors who shared their stories with me over the years it took to write this novel. Some are children and I can’t name you all, but I hope I’ve been respectful and done justice to your experiences. Thank you for your bravery. I would also like to acknowledge the firefighters who risk their own safety to protect us against fires, whatever the cause. I hope I’ve been able to write a novel that captures something of the emotional human experience that goes along with these traumatic events.

More personally, I’d like to thank the Destineers, my group of writing friends in Melbourne (who in their own work and success remind me of why we do this), my agent, Pippa Masson, and now Lex Hirst and the wonderful team at Pantera Press. I need to thank Nick Brown, who read various versions of this manuscript and provided me with many thoughtful comments over the years. And because writing and research for writing, reading trial transcripts on computers in the Department of Justice, visiting the sites of bushfires, reading testimony volunteered to the Black Saturday Royal Commission, delving into the many excellent books about fire and its aftermath that have been published in recent years, talking to fireys about their work take me away from them, my own sons, Ben, Tom and Jake, are the people I most need to acknowledge. I love you guys. I’m so thankful you’re nothing like Caleb. But I won’t reveal whose bedroom was the inspiration for his…

Book club questions

BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS

1. Do you believe that Phoebe was a trustworthy figure or reliable narrator? How does the way she appears to the reader change as the story progresses?

2. What was the significance of Phoebe’s collection? How did her compulsion to take things affect the people around her?

3. Discuss Caleb’s motives for keeping his whereabouts during the fire a secret.

4. Phoebe and Caleb are treated as outsiders in Brunton. How might this story be different if they had been perceived as ‘locals’?

5. The second part of the novel was told from the perspectives of both Phoebe and Caleb. How did the addition of Caleb’s voice affect the story?

6. Which characters do you sympathise with and why?

7. Caleb kills an injured wallaby out of kindness. What is symbolic about this?

8. How do the references to ancient goddesses interact with the story?

9. How does Phoebe’s obsession with finding the truth and proving Caleb’s innocence affect her character and the lives of the people around her?