Brendan Murray grew up on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and has been writing for as long as he can remember. Though his first love is nonfiction, he also enjoys writing creatively; his short stories have twice received National Literary Awards from the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
"It was said to be a giant, red-eyed, copper-coloured serpent that
could lash out with the ferocity of a crocodile. Until the
Wikmunkan people of the Cape York Peninsula lead naturalist Donald
Thomson to a living speciman in 1933, the reptile was thought to be
a myth. Thomson published a scientific paper about the discovery of
the taipan but, as Brendan James Murray points out, it was hardly a
discovery, more a "translation into white mythology of what
Wikmunkan people and others had always understood". This dual
perspective makes Venom much more than a tense, vividly written
human drama about the race to make an antivenom for one of the most
deadly snakes in the world. Through the remarkable survival story
of Indigenous boy George Rosendale, Murray subtly traces the venom
unleashed by European settlers themselves." --Sydney Morning
Herald
"By one of Australia's best and brightest young authors, this is a
gripping tale of heroism and tragedy, offering the glimmering
possibility of reconciliation." --Creative Spirits
"The way Murray writes history instantly brings to mind
contemporaries such as Peter Fitzsimons, Grantlee Kieza, and Julia
Baird. Not only has he picked an admittedly unusual entry point
into Australian social and history; he has done so with a
novelist's flair. These days, the best kind of history writing
engages the reader's intellectual curiosity as well as their
yearning for story and narrative. It's the subject matter--venom
and poisonous snakes and Australia's indigenous and colonial
history--that draws the reader in." --Better Reading
"Packed with research and simply stunning writing. . . . Combining
thoughtful writing with almost thriller-like pacing, and packed
with extensive and excellent research, the book also reveals a
surprisingly emotional side, as driven science meets very human
grief." --The AU Review
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