Wisdom Tree Five linked Novellas from Nick Earls

Available monthly from May-September 2016.
Five Novellas released each month from May 2016. All individual, all linked in subtle and intriguing ways…

Every once in a while, you get to read something so sparklingly creative, unique and authentic that it makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, makes your skin tingle. Wisdom Tree is that.

Nick Earls is one of Australia’s most quietly perceptive writers, and this loosely linked quintet of novellas proves just how observant he is on the ways of contemporary life. Work, family, failure and persistence are the major themes. After finishing the novellas I came away moved, contemplative and appreciative of the power of a well turned novella to convey ideas beyond its wordcount… Unreservedly recommended.
—Lindy Jones, bookseller, Abbey’s Bookshop

Together these novellas create a 21st century world in which five families struggle and resolve the tension of our time: balancing the desire for fame and fortune with the obligations and responsibility, and the love to be found in everyday family life.

This floored me. The format is a game changer and the linked novellas combine to create the best book I’ve read in 12 years, since David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Five complex and distinct stories set in New York, Brisbane, Vancouver, Alaska and L.A. that somehow magically meet—I can’t quite believe it. Earls has never had his due but if this doesn’t get incredible press from here to Timbuktu, then publishing truly is broken. Or maybe he just fixed it, because Wisdom Tree is a transcendent wonder. —Chris Flynn, Tiger in Eden and The Glass Kingdom

This publishing project deliberately disrupts the 21st century reading experience and questions the suitability of the novella to our fast new century; it is a project and campaign that will upset traditional practice and beliefs around bookselling, and the primacy of the novel. The novella is the 21st century literary form and Inkerman & Blunt intend to disrupt the dominance of the novel with a campaign which itself will be an ongoing narrative, a collection of episodes that will unfold in an ongoing conversation that will overlap, link and come together to make us rethink the way we read, and the way we tell stories.

By the time I had finished Gotham it didn’t matter to me how long these stories were, just that they were well written, fully formed and satisfying. They are beautiful books that can fit in your pocket, meaningful stories enhanced by great design. Novellas are notoriously tricky to sell, but in the Wisdom Tree project by Nick Earls the novella has never seemed more appealing.
—Kym Bagley, bookseller, Dymocks Melbourne

The next big thing Downunder: In 2012 two things happened: esteemed Australian journal, Griffith Review, began devoting an annual edition to the novella, AND online magazine, Seizure, started the ‘Viva La Novella’ prize because they ‘believe some of the greatest works in the English language are actually novellas.’

In this day and age, readers have so many choices—but not always when it comes to length. Where are the long short stories that fill out a believable and recognisable world, give you the satisfaction of immersion and time to care about the characters without drowning in extraneous detail? Novellas do just that—satisfy without overwhelming. Congratulation I&B on giving the discerning reader choice—more please!—Lindy Jones, bookseller, Abbey’s Bookstore

Downunder, the novella is disturbing the literary waters and I&B is stirring the ripples with Wisdom Tree: five pocket-sized, richly intelligent novellas by the internationally renowned Nick Earls. Subtly linked, Wisdom Tree explores how humans relate to one another—what makes a family, what makes us human. Each book satisfies, while drawing readers toward a big ‘a-ah’ in the closing moments of novella #5 Noho.

Superbly written, Wisdom Tree is the accessible form for twenty-first century time poor, screen devoted readers. It declares the novella’s coming of age and proves it is no longer an in-betweener, but the prescient literary form of our time.

Nick Earls is the award-winning author of twelve novels and numerous shorter works. With the publication of the Word Hunters trilogy (Penguin 2012-2013), he is now officially also a children’s writer. Find out more about him here.

We are pleased novella #1 of the Wisdom Tree will appear under the name ‘Cargoes’ in Griffith Review’s 2015 Novella Project, out this November 2015.

Our publicist for Wisdom Tree is Brendan Fredericks. Please contact him for images, press releases, event bookings and author interviews.