The Rat Catcher by Kim Kelly
About Kim Kelly
Kim Kelly is the author of eleven novels, including the acclaimed Wild Chicory and bestselling The Blue Mile. With distinctive warmth and lyrical charm, her stories explore Australia, its history, politics and people. Her work has gained shortlistings in The Hope Prize and Australia’s premier short novel award, Viva la Novella. A long-time book editor and sometime reviewer, Kim is a dedicated narrative addict and lover of true love. In fact, she takes love so seriously she once donated a kidney to her husband to prove it, and also to save his life. Originally from Sydney, today Kim lives in central New South Wales, on Wiradjuri country, with her muse de bloke, two cats and some chickens, and occasionally the kids when they come home to graze. For further information:
A Quote from Kim Kelly
“After almost two decades spent fossicking for truths beneath what Twain called Australia’s ‘beautiful lies’, to have my efforts recognised by this ARA Historical Novel Prize longlisting is a shining honour I will always cherish. It’s also wonderful that the judges, in their commitment to literary diversity, have chosen to include a cross-genre romantic comedy exploring poverty, bigotry and the dignity of meaningful, fairly valued work – a small but epic story of ordinary people inspired by the scrappy immigrants who made me. Thank you, Edward Federman of ARA Group, for your extraordinary generosity and vision, and the HNSA for your celebration of historical fiction in all its forms. Because all our stories are important: together, they are a mosaic of mirrors showing us glimpses of who we really are.”
About The Rat Catcher
In the sweltering summer of 1900, young wharf labourer Patrick O’Reilly is down on his luck in the slums of Sydney and homesick for Tralee. When a deadly outbreak of plague descends on the city, O’Reilly’s daydreaming mind is miles away – in the golden hair and kindly, confident air of a girl called Rosie Hughes.
Just as he’s wondering why any girl would want a no-hoper like him, opportunity knocks with the offer of a job as a rat catcher working for the city’s Plague Department, containing the spread of disease. But the job will bring him a lot more than a pay rise and a swift education on traps and poisons.
In the Public Lending Library, on the top floor of the Queen Victoria Building, above the bustling centre of Sydney, he comes face-to-face with a legendary rat called Old Scratch who will change the way he understands himself and the world forever. Drawn from Kim Kelly’s own trove of Irish-Australian family lore, The Rat Catcher is a mischievous, fast-paced fable told with her trademark compassion, a sharp eye on the epic in the ordinary, and an irrepressible love for life, in all its marvellous forms.
