Dark Places

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize 1995. This edition introduced by Louise Adler.


Dark Places, a companion novel to Lilian’s Story, is the tale of  a man with a comically grand exterior who believes he has the right, and the duty, to conquer the mocking flesh of any woman. Even his own daughter.


Albion Gidley Singer creates his world as a vast collection of facts––facts he uses to support his own power and status. After an awkward childhood, aware that he is a disappointment to his father, he acquires, the trappings of respectability––success in business, a family. But beneath his comically grand exterior Albion’s soul remains a dark place of fear and loathing, driving him to terrifying deeds.


Kate Grenville is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Her bestselling novels have won many awards andhave been published around the world. They include The Secret River (winner of the Commonwealth Prize), The Idea of Perfection (winner of the Orange prize) and Lilian’s Story (winner of the Australian/Vogel Prize).


Louise Adler is CEO and Publisher-in-Chief of Melbourne University Publishing. She is the Deputy Chancellor of Monash University and the Chair of the Board of Methodist Ladies' College. She also serves as a member of the Board of the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

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‘A masterful, sharp-tongued portrait of an individual and an age. Grenville's fiction is impossible to put down.’ Kirkus Reviews

‘This is a dark tale, told with surprising humour.’ The New Yorker, Recommended Reading


'Kate Grenville is a skilled, talented writer… lush and beautiful writing…’ New York Times Book Review


‘Great daring… the prose is gracefully poetic, rich with sensory descriptions that are powerful enough to carry the emotional weight. Grenville was extraordinarily brave to take on such a challenge…she provides a world so vivid that, despite discomfort, the reader continues…Grenville is truly a magician.’ Boston Sunday Globe


‘A ventriloqual tour de force of the darkness at the heart of man.’ Sydney Morning Herald


‘Grenville brilliantly, if chillingly, captures the voice of the smug, self-hating businessman who despises others as he despises himself...This is an eloquent, angry and humane novel… one of the strongest, most compelling novels of 1994.’ Irish Times


‘Dark Places is a book that rises to heights of obsessive and propulsive power…’ Australian