Fireweather

Miranda Darling

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘A feminist triumph and homage to Virginia Woolf, Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead is a potent exploration of suburban entrapment for women.’

Cassandra Atherton, Australian Book Review

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘Short, sharp, and immersive … Thunderhead is a powerful story that explores motherhood, mental health, our sense of self, and our right to autonomy in the context of relentless, everyday domestic life. This is complex, layered, and beautiful writing that invites readers to consider their own wild and chaotic inner worlds, and the ways in which negative relationships shape us.’

Danielle Bagnato, The Big Issue

View all reviews

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘Set over one fever-pitched day … It’s a daring book, adopting the aesthetics of Deborah Levy with the velocity of a crime thriller and an off-kilter voice, deeply internal, darkly comic, clipped, and Woolfish … Thunderhead brims with magazine-style musings — all those dizzying top notes, that intertextuality, the style. It’s a strong, complex, and self-aware voice, and it is the primary vehicle through which we gauge Winona’s resilience and determination. If The Catcher in the Rye were instead penned by a domestic violence survivor, it might read a little like Thunderhead. For fans of Melissa Broder, Elizabeth Hardwick, and Edwina Preston.’

Mel Fulton, Books+Publishing

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘Darkly funny, astute, timely — Thunderhead’s protagonist insists on being heard, and we as readers feel compelled to listen. To care. Such a fresh and lovely voice, full of humour, insight, and energy. I loved Winona — and her story.’

Sofie Laguna, author of The Eye of the Sheep

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘Thunderhead takes the brewing storm of domesticity and cracks it open with incredible vulnerability, generosity, and humour. At once Rachel Cusk, at once Jenny Offill, and altogether entirely Miranda Darling, this powerful, restless, irresistible novel is essential reading.’

Laura Jean McKay, author of The Animals in That Country

**Praise for Thunderhead:**‘Thunderhead is edgy black comedy and sports real-time internal monologue meticulously describing one day of domestic purgatory … Darling’s whip-smart short novel creates a strong narrative voice spiked with caustic wit, intertextual reference, and intelligent humour. It’s formidably brilliant feminist fiction that sparks a compelling conversation with its literary forebears, Woolf in particular.’

Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald

It all began when they started running away …

Life for Winona Dalloway is not as it should be. Her husband is no longer her husband, her children are not at home with her, and the city in which she lives is besieged by fires. Black ash falls like snow, songbirds screech like dinosaurs, and the doctors are calling her mad …

In this looking-glass world, Winona is forced to prove she is a sane, rational human being. As the pronouncements of the professionals grow more insistent, so too do the voices crowding inside Winona’s head. She seeks solace in the company of plants and animals, and begins to imagine an entirely other way of being — one that might make whole her broken heart.

Praise for Thunderhead:

‘A feminist triumph and homage to Virginia Woolf, Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead is a potent exploration of suburban entrapment for women.’

Cassandra Atherton, Australian Book Review

Praise for Thunderhead:

Danielle Bagnato, The Big Issue

View all reviews

Praise for Thunderhead:

Mel Fulton, Books+Publishing

Praise for Thunderhead:

Sofie Laguna, author of The Eye of the Sheep

Praise for Thunderhead:

Laura Jean McKay, author of The Animals in That Country

BUY EBOOK

Details

Format:Hardback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:160pp

ISBN (13):9781761381379

RRP:$29.99

Pub date:2 Sep 2025

Rights Held: World

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Miranda Darling

Miranda Darling is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. She read English and Modern Languages at Oxford then took a Masters in Strategic Studies and Defence from the ANU (GSSD). She became an adjunct scholar at a public policy think tank, specialising in non-traditional security threats. She has published both fiction and nonfiction.