Life in Ten Houses: Penguin Special

Acclaimed author Sonya Hartnett is firmly Melburnian but has restlessly moved from suburb to suburb in her search for the 'Last House' - that special corner of the world in which to settle and find contentment. Viewing her life and work through the lens of real estate, she vividly recalls the places she has passed through on her way to finding home.
Expanding on her 2010 Redmond Barry lecture, this short memoir is a beautifully atmospheric exploration of the idea of home and what it means to be a writer in a City of Literature.

Sonya Hartnett's work has won numerous Australian and international literary prizes and has been published around the world. Uniquely, she is acclaimed for her stories for adults, young adults and children. Her accolades include the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Of A Boy), The Age Book of the Year (Of A Boy), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (Thursday's Child), the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for both Older and Younger Readers (Forest, The Silver Donkey, The Ghost's Child, The Midnight Zoo and The Children of the King), the Victorian Premier's Literary Award (Surrender), shortlistings for the Miles Franklin Award (for both Of a Boy and Butterfly) and the CILP Carnegie Medal (The Midnight Zoo). Hartnett is also the first Australian recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2008).
Golden Boys, Sonya's third novel for adults, was shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She also published her fourth picture book, Blue Flower, illustrated by Gabriel Evans, in 2021 and it was shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award.