{"product_id":"2026100007558-secondhand-the-defectors","title":"The Defectors","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage\u003cbr\u003ePages: Yellowed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the charged political atmosphere of Cold War Australia, Mena Calthorpe's The Defectors presents a gripping narrative of divided loyalties, moral compromise, and the quiet tremors that shake ordinary lives when ideology collides with conscience. Set against a backdrop of social tension and ideological conflict, the novel chronicles the lives of characters caught between the pull of personal conviction and the demands of the world around them, forcing them to confront what it truly means to belong — and to betray.\n\nCalthorpe, best known for her celebrated debut The Dyehouse (1961), writes with the same precise, unflinching realism that earned her a prominent place in the canon of Australian working-class literature. Her prose is spare yet deeply humane, illuminating the interior lives of her characters with quiet authority. The Defectors stands as a testament to her ability to transform the political into the profoundly personal — and leaves the reader asking which allegiances, in the end, are worth keeping.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49131003904219,"sku":"2026100007558-SECONDHAND","price":45.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/6d9e91e2-e77f-4b15-8651-c415712769c3.png?v=1786594404","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007558-secondhand-the-defectors","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}