'This evening won't be over until someone's blood is spread.'
When you've set your heart on something, imagined it's yours, do you just stand by and watch as someone takes it from you? And what if your rival is your best friend: the virginal one, the ordinary one? What if you know you've been wronged?
'Had they not taped my mouth shut I would have said "it's just a piece of paper, it's a story, it's not real", like all my other tales. But the seal around my gullet limits my defence, and I wheeze red in frustration until I realise looking composed would do my cause more good than dribbling and gagging on the stage. But it wouldn't be any fun if I didn't struggle.'
Janey Dwyer sits on a makeshift stage built in the centre of a tired Australian country town. Her hands and feet are bound; cars circle the platform, headlights acting as an interrogator's lamp. The town has come to witness the entertainment of justice delivered. On high, Janey tells a wild tale of power, friendship and revenge, ultimately driving the town's people and the reader to a desperate conclusion in this modern-day witch hunt.
Sinister and provocative, 'The Anatomy Of Truth' is a compelling novel which explores both the nature of truth and power - who tells it and who uses it - and the darker places of the human soul.
