The Night Has a Thousand Eyes : A Novel by Mandy Sayer

Mark has to flee for his life, after he fires an air gun through the window of his father's shed, he's afraid he may have damaged something, but when peering through the broken window, he sees such a horrifying sight. Ruby, his older sister, has to handle the family's van and together with him and the baby sister set off on a frightening adventure across country, escaping the past and their violent father. In this electrifying road novel of family secrets, small-town scandals, murder and manslaughter, the author cleverly weaves raw suspense with exquisite prose. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is a vivid and haunting tale of three kids on the run, because sometimes, all you can do, is run.

• This novel was nominated for the Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing, Best Novel, 2008 and won the Davitt Award for best young fiction book on 2008.

Sayer, Mandy. The night has thousand eyes : a novel, Pymble, N.S.W. : Fourth Estate, 2007.

The Trout Opera

This novel is the story of Wilfred Lampe a simple farmer who, at the end of his long life, is unconsciously swept up into an international event, the Olympic Games in 2000. On the way he discovers a great-niece, Aurora and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety, a town in the Snowy River, once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with the reality of modern Australia. This is a stunning epic road novel that encompasses the changing nature of the Australian character by shifting from one age to another into the Australian history and back and forth as the stories reveals themselves, producing a very seductive narrative structure.

This novel was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2008 and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book, 2008

Condon, Matthew. The trout opera, Milsons Point, N.S.W. : Vintage Australia, 2007.

Here an article about this work:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/an-epic-a-while-in-the-making/story-e6frg8nf-1111114814235