COMP CLOSED: WIN ‘The Ripping Tree’ by Nikki Gemmell

An illustrious family. A beautiful home. A shipwrecked young woman left on its doorstep. Don’t think they’re going to save her…

This week’s giveaway book (with a great cover) is the new novel from bestselling author Nikki Gemmell. The Ripping Tree is described as “an intense, sharp shiver of a novel”, which brings to mind such diverse influences as The Turn of the Screw, Rebecca and the film Get Out as much as it evokes The Secret River. Oh look, here comes a synopsis now:

Early 1800s. Thomasina ‘Tom’ Trelora is on her way to the colonies. Her fate: to be married to a clergyman she’s never met. But as the Australian coastline comes into view, a storm wrecks the ship and leaves her lying on the rocks, near death. She’s saved by an Aboriginal man who carries her to the door of a grand European house, Willowbrae.

Tom is now free to be whoever she wants to be and a whole new life opens up to her. But as she’s drawn deeper into the intriguing life of this grand estate, she discovers that things aren’t quite as they seem. She stumbles across a horrifying secret at the heart of this world of colonial decorum – and realises she may have exchanged one kind of prison for another…

This powerful and gripping tale of survival is written in Nikki Gemmell’s signature lyrical and evocative prose, it examines the darkness at the heart of early colonisation. Unsettling, audacious, thrilling and unputdownable.

Want to win a copy? Well, we could go down lots of dark themes, but instead simply tell us your favourite kind of TREE and why! Our favourite three answers will WIN a copy of the book.

Entries close midday Monday 19 April 2021, Sydney/Melbourne time.

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR YOUR ENTRIES! WINNERS WILL BE CONTACTED BY EMAIL AND ANNOUNCED IN OUR NEWSLETTER.