After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, By Evie Wyld

London-based Evie Wyld draws on an Australian childhood in a gutsy debut novel about three generations of vulnerable men. In a seaside shack, fenced off by sugar cane and blue gums, Frank has come to get over the end of a relationship.

Over the years, other men in his family have come here to lick their wounds, including his grandfather (who served in Korea) and his father (Vietnam). Frank has visions of living off the land, pickling beetroot and befriending his neighbours.

Instead, his attempts at integration are thwarted when a young girl in the local community goes missing.

The novel's primeval setting overshadows even the most stark of Wyld's man-made catastrophes. This is a young writer with talent to burn.