Take Home Reading: Robbie Arnott

The Wheeler Centre

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work.

In this episode we’re talking to Robbie Arnott about his novel The Rain Heron, a lyrical, compelling ecological thriller about our relationship with the natural world. The Rain Heron is equal parts horror and wonder, and utterly gripping.

‘I think all stories are human stories, in a way. I knew [that] I wanted to write a lot about the environment, and I wanted to create these worlds that felt very visceral and tangible while also being quite fantastical… I tried to have all the imaginative elements as things that feel like they fit neatly into these people's lives and into the world they live in. I didn't want to over explain them or make it feel like I was heaping on a bunch of exposition about why there's a bird made out of rain... And I thought, if it's something that characters just accept, then they'll feel more human.’

The Rain Heron is out now through Text Publishing.

Transcript

Download a PDF transcript of this episode here.

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