Trent Dalton

Dalton spent years as a journalist in Brisbane before Boy Swallows Universe, which is built directly on his own childhood: a stepfather who dealt drugs, a mother jailed on drug offences, a babysitter who was a convicted killer, and a brother who did not speak. The novel keeps all of that and adds a magic-realist seam that some readers find unnecessary and others take for the point. It sold enormously in Australia and became a Netflix series. He has kept working from real interviews since, including Love Stories, assembled from conversations with strangers on a Brisbane street corner.