The Breaking

Hannah Bird has just arrived in Thailand. Disoriented and out of her depth, she meets Deven, a fierce and gutsy Australian expat who sweeps her into thrilling adventures rescuing elephants.

As they head deeper and deeper into the fraught world of elephant tourism, their lives become tangled in ways Hannah never imagined. But how far will they go to save a life?

Hannah is about to make a critical decision from which there will be no turning back, with shattering consequences.

The Breaking is an extraordinary debut. Sharply observed and richly vivid, it is an intensely moving story about the magnetic bond between two young women and the enduring cost of animal exploitation. It is at once devastating and exhilarating, and ultimately transformative.

• Highly Commended - ACT Notable Awards Fiction Award (Big Press), 2021

About the Author

Irma Gold (pronounced Ear-ma) is an award-winning author and editor. Her debut novel, The Breaking, won the NSW Writers Centre Varuna Fellowship and was awarded development grants by artsACT and CAPO.

Irma’s debut collection of short fiction, Two Steps Forward (Affirm Press), was selected from over 450 manuscripts to be published as the final in the Long Story Shorts series of six short fiction collections. Two Steps Forward was critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for or won a number of awards. Her short fiction has also been widely published in journals, including Meanjin, Island, Westerly, Review of Australian Fiction and Going Down Swinging, and in anthologies, including the tenth anniversary edition of Award Winning Australian Stories and Australian Love Stories, edited by Cate Kennedy.

Irma is also the author of three picture books for children, most recently Megumi and the Bear (Walker Books), with two more forthcoming, Seree’s Story (Walker Books) and Where the Heart Is (EK Books). Irma is passionate about childhood literacy and is Ambassador for the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge.