{"product_id":"2026100009469-secondhand-an-item-from-the-late-news","title":"An Item From The Late News","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: repr.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Yellowed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the sun-drenched yet morally suffocating landscape of small-town Queensland, Thea Astley's An Item from the Late News chronicles the quiet destruction of an outsider who dares to challenge the rigid social order of a community incapable of tolerating difference. The novel centers on Wafer, a gentle, harmless drifter who arrives in the fictional town of Allbut, only to become the target of collective suspicion, hostility, and ultimately, mob violence — a scapegoat sacrificed on the altar of conformity and fear.\n\nAstley, one of Australia's most decorated and razor-sharp prose stylists, constructs her narrative with a biting satirical precision that indicts the parochialism and casual cruelty lurking beneath the surface of Australian provincial life. Her writing is both lyrical and unflinching, capable of illuminating the darkest corners of human nature with dark wit and moral clarity. A powerful meditation on persecution, otherness, and the violence of the ordinary, this novel asks an uncomfortable question: what does a community reveal about itself in the way it treats those who do not belong?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203180568795,"sku":"2026100009469-SECONDHAND","price":20.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/fb1d9652-6c36-4c98-959c-9e0d37a4b1d1.png?v=1788145014","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100009469-secondhand-an-item-from-the-late-news","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}