The October 4 Edition

I think most journalists would tell you becoming a published author is on their professional bucket list. Some, like many of the writers whose bylines you see in Good Weekend, are fortunate enough to have achieved that goal. And then there’s Jane Harper, who has left journalism far behind to become a bona fide, fiction-writing juggernaut. Harper’s success, since her debut novel, The Dry, was released in 2016, is really quite staggering. She has sold some 3.5 million books and been translated into more than 35 languages. Her work has been adapted for the screen multiple times, she has received numerous literary awards and even appears to have spawned an entire literary genre, dubbed “outback noir”. Writer Amanda Hooton spoke with Harper on the cusp of the release of her latest novel to find out how you navigate fame and acclaim when you inadvertently find yourself one of the world’s top crime authors and a publishing multimillionaire. It’s a fascinating portrait of someone who seems totally unaffected by achieving that elusive combination of critical and commercial success. – Melissa Stevens, editor