Closing Down

By: Sally Abbott

Narrated by: Neil Pigot

Shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for a Science Fiction Novel 2017

'a polished, accomplished, imaginative novel' - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD


What would you do if all you held to be familiar was lost?

Australia's rural towns and communities are closing down, much of Australia is being sold to overseas interests, states and countries and regions are being realigned worldwide.

Town matriarch Granna Adams, her grandson Roberto, the lonely and thoughtful Clare - all try in their own way to hold on to their sense of self, even as the world around them fractures.

The past is long gone. The question now is: do they have a future?

An extraordinary and timely debut novel from a compelling new Australian voice

'an arresting vision of survival and resilience in a broken world' - AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

'The characters and their strange world are so powerfully drawn that the book's oppressive mood lingers with the reader long after they've looked up from the page.' - SATURDAY PAPER

'...a disturbingly good read' - MARIE CLAIRE

'Like all good speculative fiction, Sally Abbott has taken what's happening in the geo-politico-social sphere and ramped it up to the nth degree.' - THE BIG ISSUE

Exceeds Hardened Reviewers Best Efforts

From the description: What would you do if all you held to be familiar was lost? More importantly, where do you belong?

I've never had so much trouble trying to review a book before. And I'm not the only one. Why? Because Sally Abbott is a better, wiser and more interesting writer than reviewers. And we know it. The many-layered, multi-colored subtleties within Closing Down cannot be pinned down like butterflies on a cork board. But they will be very deeply enjoyed by appreciative listeners.

The reason this book does not receive more 5 star reviews isn't because it is underwhelming. Quite the opposite! It is because it often overwhelms our powers of description. By the time I had listened to this book for 30 minutes, I already knew:
1.This is one of the most interesting and original stories I've ever encountered.
2. I owe this new writer and Audible listeners the best review I can muster.
3. I will never be able to do it justice, no matter how hard I try.
If you find this audiobook as wondrous and unusual as so many others so-- you will understand the problem. And why we try anyway.

The basic elements here are:
rapid and drastic changing climates, the effects on Australian small town life and in other places, unusually deft magical realism, fine fusions of inner and outer nature, and powerful alterations underway in patterns of human existence. Underlying all these is the great difficulty of maintaining loving connections when self-identities come under increasing pressure.

Extra added attraction:
Neil Pigot's superb skill conveys every subtlety between characters and scenes with consummate ease. His mastery of the fine art of unobtrusive narration sets the listener free to be fully carried away.