“Sydney in the 1960s wasn't the exuberant multicultural metropolis it is today. Out in the city's western reaches, days passed in a sun-struck stupor. In the evenings, families gathered on their verandas waiting for the 'southerly buster' - the thunderstorm that would break the heat and leave the air cool enough to allow sleep.”

Australian-American journalist and novelist

Geraldine Brooks is an Australian-American journalist and novelist, known for her fiction and reporting. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 2005 novel March. Brooks has written both journalism and novels, and March brought her major recognition. Her work is associated with literary fiction and with the eye for detail that comes from a background in reporting.