Thunderhead

‘Darkly funny, astute, timely — Thunderhead’s protagonist insists on being heard, and we as readers feel compelled to listen. To care. Such a fresh and lovely voice, full of humour, insight, and energy. I loved Winona — and her story.’

-- Sofie Laguna, author of The Eye of the Sheep

‘Thunderhead takes the brewing storm of domesticity and cracks it open with incredible vulnerability, generosity, and humour. At once Rachel Cusk, at once Jenny Offill, and altogether entirely Miranda Darling, this powerful, restless, irresistible novel is essential reading.’

-- Laura Jean McKay, author of The Animals in That Country

‘Set over one fever-pitched day … It's a daring book, adopting the aesthetics of Deborah Levy with the velocity of a crime thriller and an off-kilter voice, deeply internal, darkly comic, clipped, and Woolfish … Thunderhead brims with magazine-style musings — all those dizzying top notes, that intertextuality, the style. It's a strong, complex and self-aware voice, and it is the primary vehicle through which we gauge Winona's resilience and determination. If The Catcher in the Rye were instead penned by a domestic violence survivor, it might read a little like Thunderhead. For fans of Melissa Broder, Elizabeth Hardwick and Edwina Preston.’

-- Mel Fulton * Books+Publishing *

‘In prose that’s intense, darkly funny and searingly astute, Darling successfully conveys the sense of entrapment, the frantic bargaining with fate and the ultimate powerlessness of a woman overwhelmed by a vicious man.’

-- Anne Green * Good Reading Magazine *

‘Short, sharp and immersive … Thunderhead is a powerful story that explores motherhood, mental health, our sense of self and our right to autonomy in the context of relentless, everyday domestic life. This is complex, layered and beautiful writing that invites readers to consider their own wild and chaotic inner worlds, and the ways in which negative relationships shape us.’

-- Danielle Bagnato * The Big Issue *

‘A feminist triumph and homage to Virginia Woolf, Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead is a potent exploration of suburban entrapment for women.’

-- Cassandra Atherton * Australian Book Review *

‘Miranda Darling writes from the absolute edge and leads us atop a tightrope strung high between submission and freedom. This book is the loss of balance, the breathlessness before the fall. Sharp, complex, and painfully relatable, Thunderhead is a firecracker of a story that lives up to its title. Darling’s dry wit and stark prose swallowed me whole, and I know I’ll be ruminating over it for a while to come.’

-- Lucy Fleming * Readings *

“Thunderhead is edgy black comedy and sports real-time internal monologue meticulously describing one day of domestic purgatory … Darling's whip-smart short novel creates a strong narrative voice spiked with caustic wit, intertextual reference, and intelligent humor. It's formidably brilliant feminist fiction that sparks a compelling conversation with its literary forebears, Woolf in particular.”

-- Cameron Woodhead * The Sydney Morning Herald *

‘[A] chillingly sophisticated novella … Thunderhead is an innovative, smartly hewn dissection of a mother’s mental load … Darling writes her story with a ferocious sensitivity … it all builds to a thunderous (pun intended) denouement that you’re unlikely to forget anytime soon.’

-- Bram Presser * A Book for Ants *

‘I was hooked.’

-- Nick Goldie * The Monaro Post *

‘[This] darkly comic novel is a biting, hilarious and original take on motherhood, suburbia and domesticity … Thunderhead will hit the mark for fans of novelists such as Melissa Broder, Miranda July and Jenny Offill plus, of course, Cusk herself.’

-- Melanie Kembrey * The Sydney Morning Hera