Black Inc. is pleased to re-release Kate Jennings’s critically acclaimed novella Snake, widely considered to be Kate Jennings’s finest work. Described as ‘Madame Bovary on the Riverina’, and out of print for several years, this new format celebrates the 15th anniversary since Snake was first published.
Snake, by Kate Jennings
My life is about to begin. This is the only thought in Irene’s head on the day she marries a handsome Second World War veteran.
But Irene is restless and rebellious, dangerously bored by her life as a farmer’s wife. As they raise children and crops, watch the sky for rain and dream of other lives, the tension between them builds and builds. Meanwhile Girlie, their watchful, thoughtful, fish-out-of-water daughter, is hatching escape plans of her own.
Kate Jennings’s black humour and pared-back prose, at once understated and rich in startling imagery, resonate long after the final unnerving chapter. Set within a parched, uniquely Australian landscape, Snake is a modern classic.
‘Irresistibly good.’ – Shirley Hazzard
‘The work of a powerful imagination.’ – Carol Shields, New York Times Book Review
Let me know if you’d like a review copy of the re-release of Kate Jennings’s novella Snake.
Elisabeth Young Publicity Manager Black Inc./Quarterly Essay
