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  • Published: 28 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780143203056
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.99

Butterfly




A gripping, beautifully observed tale of what a teenage girl will do to keep her friends, by one of Australia's finest writers, Sonya Hartnett.

On the verge of her fourteenth birthday, Plum knows her life will change. But she has no idea how.

Over the coming weeks, her beautiful neighbour Maureen will show her how she might fly. Her adored older brothers will court catastrophe in worlds that she barely knows exist. And her friends – her worst enemies – will tease and test, smelling weakness. They will try to lead her on and take her down.

Who ever forgets what happens when you're fourteen?

'Lucid and beautiful, compassionate yet unflinching, enigmatic yet touching, sometimes tragic sometimes funny ... a writer at the height of her powers.' Sophie Masson, Weekend Australian

'Rich, visceral ... Hartnett's tiny domestic insights unleash a tornado of human experience.' Herald Sun

'Hartnett's prose is breathtakingly good ... Will make adult female readers shiver with gladness at being all grown up.' Big Issue

  • Published: 28 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780143203056
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Hartnett's work has won numerous Australian and international literary prizes and has been published around the world. Uniquely, she is acclaimed for her stories for adults, young adults and children. Her accolades include the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Of A Boy), The Age Book of the Year (Of A Boy), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (Thursday's Child), the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for both Older and Younger Readers (Forest, The Silver Donkey, The Ghost's Child, The Midnight Zoo and The Children of the King), the Victorian Premier's Literary Award (Surrender), shortlistings for the Miles Franklin Award (for both Of a Boy and Butterfly) and the CILP Carnegie Medal (The Midnight Zoo). Hartnett is also the first Australian recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2008).

Golden Boys, Sonya’s third novel for adults, was shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She also published her fourth picture book, Blue Flower, illustrated by Gabriel Evans, in 2021 and it was shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award.

Also by Sonya Hartnett

See all

Praise for Butterfly

Exquisitely written – you end up rereading sentence after sentence – and unforgettable.

Nick Hornby

An extraordinary writer ... A heart-stopping representation of adolescent girlhood, as strange and riddling and true as fiction gets ... Dark and riveting ... Combine[s] a Garner-like level of observational authenticity with a sweeping dramatic brilliance ... It's hard not to think in the face of this black little diamond of a book ... Dazzling.

Peter Craven, The Age

Lucid and beautiful, compassionate yet unflinching, enigmatic yet touching, sometimes tragic sometimes funny, this is a memorable novel by a writer at the height of her powers.

Sophie Masson, Weekend Australian

Rich, visceral ... Hartnett's tiny domestic insights unleash a tornado of human experience.

Herald Sun

Hartnett's prose is breathtakingly good. Her sentences have the deft economy of poetry; her images are variably pointed or achingly poignant, sometimes both ... Will make adult female readers shiver with gladness at being all grown up.

Big Issue

Full of insight and wit.

The Guardian

Sonya Hartnett is an expert in psychological danger.

Sunday Telegraph

A skilled and subtle writer.

Canberra Times

Sonya Hartnett is a splendid writer ... Hartnett's great setting is the scuffed rehearsal room of our youth. She leads us in there with a deceptively gentle voice, beautifully cadenced.

Craig Sherborne, The Monthly

A beautiful book filled with heartbreak and empathy.

Woman's Day

Hartnett's trademark, Amis-like ability to play with language is as impressive as ever.

Sydney Morning Herald

A bittersweet joy.

Madison

Awards & recognition

Prime Minister's Literary Award

Highly commended  •  2010  •  Fiction