What I've Learnt - Jane Harper

WHAT I'VE LEARNT

Award-winning author Jane Harper taps into the insatiable desire for authentic crime thrillers with “The Dry” her best-selling novel that has put her firmly on the international stage with more than a million copies sold globally so far!

The story features a desperate tale of murder and mystery set against the arid outback and drought-stricken Australian landscape.

In the book, the tragic tale of an unexplained murder-suicide rocks a small rural town, set against a backdrop of drought and isolation.

“Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. If one of their own broke under the strain, well…”

A powerful tale of fear, loss, secrets, and love, the film version starring Australian screen legend Eric Bana has just taken more than $10 million at the Box Office!
So Jane is definitely a powerful storyteller who has captured the Australian essence and ethos. But in truth, she’s captured universal themes of trauma, betrayal, survival, and truth.

This is also reflected in her new book “The Survivors” with The Guardian describing it as portraying a “sense of a place so vivid you can almost feel the blistering heat “, and the Sydney Morning Herald stating there is “something mythic and valiant .. a quintessentially Australian story beautifully told”

Well, it’s quite an accolade when The 42nd US president Bill Clinton comments on your best-selling novel. Describing “The Dry” in glowing terms he says, “It makes the Australian Outback come alive and breeds respect for its survivors.”

The major motion picture adaptation of The Dry, starring Eric Bana as Aaron Falk, has had rave reviews.
Jane has won numerous top awards including the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, and the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year. In 2019 she continued to win an array of literary awards.

But Jane has already released her next book, The Survivors, her fourth novel - a standalone mystery set in Tasmania. Once again it’s a gripping tale of survival with secrets and a historical murder that sets to unravel a rural community.

So where did it all start? Actually born in Manchester Jane moved back to Australia eventually taking up an opportunity as a business journalist, in which she “wrote hundreds of words most days", good training for her soon-to-be fiction writing.

In 2014, Jane submitted a short story which was one of 12 chosen for the Big Issue's annual Fiction Edition. That inspired her to pursue creative writing more seriously, writing daily before and after work, breaking through with “The Dry at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2015.”

As a fellow journalist, I am inspired by her success which I think in part is a reflection of her eye for detail, her authenticity, and her penchant for a good crime thriller!

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/
Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850