Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Jock Serong discussing his new novel The Burning Island.

In 1830’s Sydney Eliza Grayling is something of an oddity; too tall, too old too sure of herself without a man to marry; she teaches unappreciative children and wonders what the world might have in store for a woman such as her.

When the merchant Srinivas appears in search of her father, Eliza is thrown into a world of old enmities and new perils. Guiding her now blind father aboard the ship Moonbird with its ragtag crew of misfits, Eliza embarks on a journey to discover and perhaps settle score with the mysterious figure of Mr Figge…

Join me as we discover Jock Serong’s The Burning Island