Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For November that debut is Permafrost by SJ Norman, out now from UQP.

This brilliant collection of short fiction explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss and longing. Inverting and queering the gothic and romantic traditions, each story represents a different take on the concept of a haunting or the haunted. Though it ranges across themes and locations—from small-town Australia to Hokkaido to rural England—Permafrost is united by the power of the narratorial voice, with its auto-fictional resonances, dark wit and swagger.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’. Sound production by Lloyd Pratt.

Further reading:

Read a review of Permafrost in our November Books Roundup.

Read about SJ’s favourite books and reading habits in this month’s Shelf Reflection.

Permafrost is available now from your local independent bookseller.

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