Tony Birch's Women & Children

Final Draft - Great Conversations

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

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Tony Birch is the author of novels, poetry and short fiction. You’ve met him on the show before with his collection Dark as Last Night which won the Steele Rudd award at the Queensland Literary Awards. Today Tony is joining us with his new novel Women & Children.

Joe Cluny lives with his Mum and his sister Ruby. He attends the local Catholic school where he generally wishes he got in less trouble and could avoid the hell the nuns keep threatening him with.

Joe’s no stranger to violence, getting the strap more often than accolades at school. In Joe’s world there’s plenty of violence to go around and his sister Ruby has warned him that you don’t ask questions about other people’s bruises.

But then when one day Joe’s aunt Oona arrives at the house bruised and shaken, Joe’s mother must act to keep her from further harm. Joe doesn’t understand what is happening but he will come to learn how much violence lurks in all their lives and what it takes to stand up to it.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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