Voss Literary Prize 2025
The winner of the Voss Literary Prize is Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane.
This is what the judges said about the book:
‘The Backpacker Murders have haunted Australians since 1992, when the first bodies were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest, just off the Hume Highway, south-west of Sydney. These were exceedingly gruesome serial killings: the final number of victims remains unknown. The case generated extensive media coverage, podcasts and at least one book, a psychological thriller profiling the murderer, the police investigation and the trial. Highway 13 is not a retelling of these crimes.
Fiona McFarlane neither sensationalises the killer nor mythologizes his crimes but instead awakens her readers to the possibilities of evil and wickedness hiding in the most innocent of everyday relationships and transactions. Highway 13 is a wonderfully original, vivid and lyrical contribution to that most literary of preoccupations, the dangers that lurk in the Australian landscape and threaten the unsuspecting.’
Highway 13 has been reviewed by QRC. Click here to read our review.