Michelle Prak’s debut thriller The Rush delivers on all fronts

Dread looms large in Adelaide author Michelle Prak’s debut thriller, The Rush, set in the unforgiving Australian outback.

Author Michelle Prak with a copy of The Rush.

The Australian landscape looms large, a character in itself, in Adelaide author Michelle Prak’s debut novel, The Rush. Expansive, enchanting, but also overwhelming in its enormity and the extremes of weather which can swing rapidly from bushfire to flood, reminding us that this wide brown land needs to be respected.

It’s a landscape Prak, who grew up in Whyalla, has always had a connection with and reverence for, which only grew during stints working in the early days as a journalist for the Whyalla News, then as chief of staff and press secretary for the Member for Grey, Barry Wakelin, in the 1990s, and later for SA Tourism.

In The Rush, flooding rains which pummel the far north of South Australia – bringing with them flash floods and crystallising the isolation of our remote communities – compels the narrative, funnelling the characters towards a climactic finish. It’s a high energy, gripping mainstream-published debut for Prak, who has previously self published and in 2021 picked up second prize in the coveted Furphy short story competition. It’s also the achievement of a lifelong dream to be a commercially published author, which in recent years the now West Croydon-based writer has made her top priority.

Prak caught the writing bug early.

“I was a bookworm as a child, but I was also really lucky,” she says. “I grew up in Whyalla and at primary school I had these fantastic teachers who must have recognised that I liked writing and started to ask more of me. One asked me to write a novel, one asked me to write the school play in year 7. They also asked me to write a serialised drama that they read out in class every day, so that was sensational encouragement.”

Prak’s start in journalism led her into political, then government roles, and for the past two decades “Prakky”, as she’s known, has been a fixture in the communications and public relations community. But a few years ago, with her children grown up and the authorial itch yet to be adequately scratched, it was time to buckle down. “There were a number of things coming together at once, turning 50, and knowing I always wanted to have a novel traditionally published,” she says.

She had written three women’s contemporary novels and pitched them to publishers but, not getting any bites, she went down the self-publishing road. “I learned a lot there. One of the big benefits of that was having the confidence, knowing that I could complete a novel-length piece of work, but also getting into those habits of writing – writing seven days a week.’’

Prak pared down her substantial volunteer and committee roles such as being a board member for Crimestoppers, and by November 2019, a first draft of The Rush was on paper.

The Rush is a thriller in the vein of Jane Harper’s The Dry, or even the film Wolf Creek, with a fast-paced narrative drawing the characters towards an inevitable confrontation, with the tension locked in early, and building along with the storm.

While it’s a shameless thrill ride, the novel taps some contemporary themes such as the impact of climate change, the alienation of modern young men and sadly more pervasive themes such as the ever-present threat of sexual violence against women of all ages, heightened by the isolation of Australia’s Outback in extremis.

What should be the trip of a lifetime for young travellers – locals Hayley and Scott – and backpackers Livia and Joost, soon takes on a hint of menace, while further north publican Andrea is dealing with her own threats with her husband called away to help a neighbour, and the isolation and weather exacerbating threats, be they imagined or real.

Succeeding in publishing a novel is no mean feat, and Prak’s journey was tough, with the agent she was most keen to approach closed to submissions. Even for a novel as gripping and saleable as The Rush, it took about a year of pitching, waiting and hoping for a breakthrough to come. And eventually, Prak’s preferred agent was open to new work.

“When she opened to submissions I sent her The Rush and she read the first three chapters.

“Then she came back to me, I think it was a day later, saying she’d like to see the whole manuscript and after reading the whole manuscript came back to me another few days later and we had a Zoom conversation where she, I suppose, wanted to get to know me.”

Prak had kept her inspiration kindled by writing several short stories during this time, picking up second place in the Furphy Literary Award in 2021 for her story “Holden”. Getting involved with Writers SA and in particular its manuscript assessment program also gave her confidence her work was on the right track.

Prak signed with Simon & Schuster in April last year, with The Rush published in May this year. It has since been published in France as “Le Deluge” through HarperCollins, and a distribution deal for the US has been struck.

Comparisons with Wolf Creek are easy, while a little simplistic, but a screen adaptation for The Rush surely beckons – something Prak is unable to talk about at the moment. She is head down working on another thriller, between speaking engagements for The Rush, with a few ideas and more established projects vying for top billing.

“There’s one now, happily, at last I’ve stuck to, which I think will be the next thriller. It’s another one set in South Australia.”

The Rush by Michelle Prak: Simon & Schuster, $33

Originally published as Michelle Prak’s debut thriller The Rush delivers on all fronts