The Rip

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- A young woman lives on the streets and in the parks of Melbourne. She's an addict, a smalltime prostitute, devoted to her dog Sunny and her friend Anton, who give her a precarious sense of belonging. Anton is an optimist, with dreams for a better, but quite humble, future, that the girl goes along with. When he runs into someone he used to know who offers them a room in his flat, she is dubious, but Anton accepts. As Steve starts to share his access to drugs and a place to crash, what seemed like a life she had some control over rapidly spirals downwards, and Steve's behaviour becomes more aggressive and domineering…  A finely wrought and non-judgemental novel about the underside of urban life, the invisible people you pass in the streets given a kind of integrity and dignity, and with an undercurrent of undescribed menace that Brandi had shown himself to be a master of in his previous bestselling book Wimmera. Lindy Jones'It's funny how quick it happens and without you really noticing. Anton said once that it's like walking out into the sea, and you think everything's fine and the water's warm, but when you turn back you're suddenly miles from shore. I've never been much of a swimmer, but I get what he means. Like, being caught in a current or something. A rip.'

A young woman living on the street has to keep her wits about her.

Or her friends. But when the drugs kick in that can be hard.

Anton has been looking out for her. She was safe with him. But then Steve came along.

He had something over Anton. Must have. But he had a flat they could crash in. And gear in his pocket. And she can't stop thinking about it. A good hit makes everything all right.

But the flat smells weird.

There's a lock on Steve's bedroom door.

And the guy is intense.

The problem is, sometimes you just don't know you are in too deep, until you are drowning.

By:   Mark Brandi
Imprint:   Hachette Australia
Country of Publication:   Australia
Dimensions:   Height: 233mm,  Width: 157mm,  Spine: 20mm
Weight:   340g
ISBN:   9780733641121
ISBN 10:   0733641121
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   February 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Mark Brandi's bestselling novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year, and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. Mark's shorter work appears in The Guardian, The Age, The Big Issue, and in journals both here and overseas. His writing is also sometimes heard on ABC Radio National. Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked extensively in the justice system, before changing direction and deciding to write. Originally from Italy, growing up in a rural Australian town continues to influence his creative focus. He now lives in Melbourne and is working on his next book.