Cherrywood: The imaginative and moving new literary novel from an award winning author, for readers of Trent Dalton, shortlisted for the ABIA Liter

From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes Cherrywood, an imaginative, darkly playful and deeply meaningful delight, a novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention.

Shortlist Indie Book Awards for Fiction 2025

Shortlist ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2025

'One rainy Friday evening in the winter of 1993, a taxi swept through the streets of East Melbourne, on its way from the city to Richmond. That year was one of the few remaining when a great deal was known of the world but not yet so much that the world had become over-known. Small gaps remained ...'

Edinburgh, 1916: A rich Scottish industrialist, Thomas Wrenfether, impulsively embarks on a mad scheme to build a paddlesteamer out of dubiously sourced European cherrywood on the other side of the world, in booming Melbourne, Australia. But nothing goes according to plan.

Melbourne, 1993: Martha is a clever, lonely and frustrated lawyer. One night, on impulse, she stops at a strange pub in Fitzroy, The Cherrywood, for a bottle of wine. The mysterious building and its inhabitants make an indelible impression, and she slowly begins to deduce odd truths about the pub.

From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes a darkly delicious, playful and rich novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention - Cherrywood is haunting, magical and a true original.

'Between the familiar and the magical comes a novel of romantic vision ... Rarely is historical fiction this fraught and alive' Sydney Morning Herald

'Complex yet inviting ... Intricately plotted, spanning time and space, Cherrywood brings to mind the scope of Richard Powers's The Overstory and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, with strong homage to the works of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.' Books+Publishing

'A beguiling story of dreamers and schemers and work ... There's a touch of magic realism here, as well as a deep interest in both characters and history, in cities and storytelling, in architecture and trees ... [and] a certain sweet sadness underlying it all.' ABC

'Intriguing, mysterious, a little gothic ... a unique tale set against the backdrop of Melbourne. A brilliant read' Radio New Zealand

'One of the most compelling and wonderfully bonkers novels of the year' Readings

'A wildly imaginative, intricately woven tale of beauty, love and loss. Serong is an exceptionally gifted writer, and Cherrywood is his best book yet' Mark Brandi

'Beneath its captivating intricacy lies an exploration of grief, love and the haunting proximity of the past ... A work of exuberance, rare charm and, above all, heart' Lucy Treloar

Sublime and haunting' Toni Jordan

'As magical as it is mesmerising. Every chapter presents the reader with another storytelling treasure more narratively wondrous than the last. Serong's wild imagination is a gift that keeps on giving.' Trent Dalton

'What an adventure. This beautiful novel of ambition and grief has me feeling ghosts at every step' Tim Rogers