The Adventures of Catvinkle

Elliot Perlman’s debut novel, Three Dollars, won the Age Book of the Year Award, the Betty Trask Award (UK), and the Fellowship of Australian Writers’ Book of the Year Award. It was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn-Rhys/Mail On Sunday Book of the Year Award (UK) and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Perlman co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Three Dollars, which received the Australian Film Critics’ Circle Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the A.F.I. Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

His collection of stories, The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming, was a bestseller in the US, named a New York Times Book Review ‘Editors’ Choice’, and received the Steele Rudd Award for the best Australian short story collection.

Perlman’s second novel, Seven Types of Ambiguity, was a bestseller in France, where it was hailed as ‘one of the best novels of recent years, a complete success’ (Le Monde). In Germany, it was called a ‘literary sensation’ (Deutschlandradio) and described as having ‘the virtues of the great modern European novel’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The novel was also a bestseller in the United States, praised for having ‘traces of Dickens’s range and of George Eliot’s generous humanist spirit’ (The New York Times), and was named a New York Times Book Review ‘Editors’ Choice’, a New York Times Book Review ‘Notable Book of the Year’, and a Washington Post ‘Editors’ Choice’. In the UK, it was lauded as ‘a colossal achievement….a tour de force’ (The Observer) and named a Sunday Telegraph ‘Book of the Year’. In Australia, it was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction.

His bestselling novel, The Street Sweeper, was described as ‘Excellent … harrowing, humane and brilliant’ (The Times UK) and ‘a towering achievement: a strikingly modern literary novel’ (Entertainment Weekly US). The San Francisco Chronicle called it ‘an epic tale that spans decades and bridges generations while chronicling the predominant chapters of racial persecution perpetrated in the darkest hours of the twentieth century,’ praising Perlman’s ability to ‘articulate the unspeakable’. The Washington Post described it as ‘a wonderfully rich, engaging and multilayered story … from an author of rare erudition and compassion.’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) noted that Perlman ‘brilliantly makes personal both the Holocaust and the civil rights movement, and crafts a moving and literate page-turner.’ The Jerusalem Post stated, ‘You will, in all likelihood, find it unforgettable.’

Elliot Perlman’s first novel for children, The Adventures of Catvinkle, has been called ‘an instant children’s classic’ (Sunday Age) and ‘A charming and whimsical tale … replete with gentle lessons’ (Books+Publishing). The Sydney Morning Herald described it as ‘exactly the sort of book I loved being given as a child, a book you can cherish.’ Magpies highlighted its themes of ‘social inclusion, anti-racism and anti-bullying’, and Better Reading called it ‘A gorgeous book guaranteed to give great joy.’ The Adventures of Catvinkle was a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book 2019 and was shortlisted for the 2019 Children’s Peace Literature Award.

His novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk is a ‘thriller-like, stylish, compelling novel’ (Weekend Australian) that ‘manages at once to limn injustices wrought by corporate acquisitiveness, misogyny and discrimination, and to affirm the transformative capacity of empathy.’ The Sydney Morning Herald called it ‘A timely look at sexual harassment and corporate corruption that manages to be laugh-out-loud funny.’

Elliot Perlman is the recipient of the Queensland Premier’s award for Advancing Public Debate. He has been described by the Times Literary Supplement (UK) as ‘Australia’s outstanding social novelist’, by Le Nouvel Observateur (France) as the ‘Zola d’Australie’, and by Lire (France) as ‘the classic of tomorrow’, one of the ‘50 most important writers in the world’.

Catvinkle and the Missing Tulips, a sequel to The Adventures of Catvinkle, is scheduled for publication in October 2020.

Laura Stitzel is an independent artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She has worked as an illustrator, animator, and author in Australia and Canada since 2008.

Stitzel has illustrated several children’s books, including Elliot Perlman’s The Adventures of Catvinkle, as well as her own picture books, Mr Mo Starts to Grow and Moonlight Mums. Her artwork has also been featured in numerous children’s television series, including the Emmy Award-winning Peg + Cat, Disney’s Space Chickens in Space, Warner Bros’ Ginger Snaps, and the long-running series Arthur.

She has also illustrated and animated for a wide range of media, including commercials, short films, print media, and television series for all ages.

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