Dusk - by Robbie Arnott (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds and twins Iris and Floyd -- out of work, money and friends -- decide to join the hunt in pursuit of the bounty"--

Book Synopsis

A New Yorker best book of 2025 so far

"Arnott has an astonishing facility with language, and his prose imbues the Tasmanian wilderness with an extraordinary, immanent beauty . . . Starkly beautiful and deeply felt." --James Bradley, The Guardian

"This is a propulsive novel of survival and betrayal, enriched by arresting depictions of nature." --The Economist

"Arresting . . . Readers will be utterly captivated by this atmospheric tale of danger and survival." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

For fans of North Woods and The Vaster Wilds, Dusk is a propulsive, moody, and atmospheric take on the Western.

In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds. Down in the lowlands, twins Iris and Floyd are out of work, money and friends. When they hear that a bounty has been placed on Dusk, they reluctantly decide to join the hunt. As they journey up into this wild, haunted country, they discover there's far more to the land and people of the highlands than they imagined. And as they close in on their prey, they're forced to reckon with conflicts both ancient and deeply personal.

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of The Rain Heron, Dusk is a masterful, mythical tale of loss, redemption, and survival.

Review Quotes

"This is a propulsive novel of survival and betrayal, enriched by arresting depictions of nature."
--The Economist

"[A] meditative novel . . . As [the twins] traverse a ghostly landscape of snow, mist, and fossils, they confront questions of morality and belonging."
--New Yorker

"Arresting . . . Readers will be utterly captivated by this atmospheric tale of danger and survival."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Arnott neatly balances the story of the hunt with excursions into the Renshaws' troubled past . . . But even as he propels the novel's plot forward, Arnott's evocative prose keeps the ruggedly beautiful 'freeing, lung-emptying openness' of the Tasmanian highlands--an environment that poses an ever-shifting set of fearsome obstacles to Iris and Floyd--in the foreground."
--Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage

"This is a great summer read--plunging you into both an atmospheric location and a heart-pounding story."
--Melanie Fleishman, Center for Fiction

"Following twins Iris and Floyd through the Tasmanian highlands, on a mission to hunt the man-killing puma Dusk, this book knocked the wind right out of me, like a guttural punch to the stomach. Robbie Arnott transforms the world through his spell-binding writing, combining elements of magical realism into this eco-western fiction, making the environment feel like the unnamed main character. Dusk is devastating and brutal; unforgiving like nature."
--Amy McInnes, BookPeople

"A red-in-tooth-and-claw saga . . . While time and place are left vague, everything else is drawn vividly, not least the stunning, monumental landscape: a character in itself, it seems to nod to past crimes and extinctions, eerily strewn as it is with bones . . . An absorbing adventure nonetheless."
--Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

"This is nature writing at its finest."
--Sam Franzini, Our Culture

"Stories about escaped big cats--especially panthers--have roamed the outlands of the Australian settler-colonial imagination for more than a century . . . In Dusk, Robbie Arnott takes these myths and reimagines them with fascinating results . . . Much of the magic of Dusk grows out of the writing. As anybody who has read any of his previous novels will know, Arnott has an astonishing facility with language, and his prose imbues the Tasmanian wilderness with an extraordinary, immanent beauty . . . Starkly beautiful and deeply felt."
--James Bradley, The Guardian

"Arnott's prose is expansive and beautifully rendered, bringing the harshness and beauty of the landscape to life, both of which are given an almost dreamlike heightening by the mystery of the time and setting. A lush, immersive read."
--Catherine Jarvie, Marie Claire (UK)

"Dusk is a sublime novel of loss and redemption, fight and surrender, that left me in absolute awe. Robbie Arnott's prose is incandescent, his storytelling mythic and filled with a wisdom that extends beyond the page. With Dusk, he asserts himself as one of Australia's finest literary writers."
--Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites

About the Author

Robbie Arnott is a Tasmanian novelist. He's been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, twice-shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and has twice won The Age Book of the Year. He lives in Hobart with his wife and children.