If you’re after a wild, quirky, adventurous novel, then Robbie Arnott’s literary debut “Flames” is for you. Set on the Tasmanian coastline, Levi McAllister builds a coffin for his sister Charlotte so that she doesn’t have to be cremated like their mother. When their mother passed away, she returned to the family as a creature of flesh and fern from the wilderness, and spontaneously combusted at the doorstep of her children’s estranged father. And that’s just the first chapter!

Told through a serie of vignettes and colourful imagery, the book asks many questions about the environment and our connection with it, and the relationships we form.

You can catch Andrew Pople on the Great Conversations Final Draft Podcast anytime! Episode 1 features acclaimed “The Book of Dirt” author Bram Presser.