Pink Mountain on Locust Island

Blending digital fever dream and hard-boiled noir in bursts of claustrophobic prose, Pink Mountain on Locust Island follows a teenager and her maybe-boyfriend into the seedy corners of the art world.Fifteen-year-old Monk drifts through a monotonous existence in a grimy Chinatown apartment with her grumpy brown couch of a dad, until she meets high school senior Santa Coy (santacoyshotsauce@gmail.com). For a moment, it looks like he might be her boyfriend. But when Monks dad becomes obsessed with Santa Coys artwork, Monk finds herself shunted to the sidelines as her father and the object of her affections begin to hatch a scheme of their own. To keep up, Monk must navigate a combustible cocktail of odd assignments, peculiar places, and murky underworld connections.In Jamie Marina Laus debut novel, shortlisted for Australias prestigious Stella Prize when she was nineteen years old, hazily surreal vignettes conjure a multifaceted world of philosophical angst and lackadaisical violence.