About the Book

Permafrost by SJ Norman is a brilliant collection of short fiction that explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss, and longing. Each story in this anthology represents a different take on the concept of a haunting or the haunted.

Whether recounting the confusion of a child trying to decipher their father and stepmother’s new relationship, the surrealness of an after-hours tour of Auschwitz, or a journey to wintry Japan to reconnect with a former lover, Permafrost unsettles, transports and impresses in equal measure.

Source: UQP

About the Facilitator

Michelle Cahill facilitated the conversation about SJ Norman’s latest collection of short stories.

Michelle Cahill (she/they) is an Australian novelist and poet of Indian heritage who lives in Sydney. Their debut collection of stories, Letter to Pessoa (Giramondo) was awarded the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing. They have been awarded grants from the Australia Council, the Copyright Agency Limited, and their prizes include the Red Room Fellowship, the KWS Hilary Mantel International Short Story Prize, shortlisting in the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Prize and the ABR Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Daisy & Woolf is published by Hachette.

This edition of A Western Sydney Book Club took place Friday, 31 March.