Golden Boys

Sonya Hartnett’s third novel for adults is utterly compelling, an unflinching and disquieting work from one of Australia’s finest writers.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Golden Boys is an unflinching and utterly compelling novel for adults by Sonya Hartnett, one Australia’s finest writers.

With their father, there’s always a catch . . .

Colt Jenson and his younger brother Bastian have moved to a new, working-class suburb. The Jensons are different. Their father, Rex, showers them with gifts – toys, bikes, all that glitters most – and makes them the envy of the neighbourhood.

To Freya Kiley and the other local kids, the Jensons are a family from a magazine, and Rex a hero – successful, attentive, attractive, always there to lend a hand. But to Colt he’s an impossible figure in a different way: unbearable, suffocating. Has Colt got Rex wrong, or has he seen something in his father that will destroy their fragile new lives?