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

Today's episode features Robbie Arnott discussing his new novel The Rain Heron.

In the forest near a small town Ren has driven herself to a life of solitude after her world was torn apart by the violence of a military coup that has overtaken the country. Ren lives by her wits; hunting and bartering with a local man for the bare necessities of life.

When the military arrive, lead by the brutally resourceful Harker, Ren believes she can outlast them. But the military have set their sigs on an impossibility. The mythical Rain Heron is the stuff of legend, but Harker has been tasked with finding it and bringing it back and she believes Ren knows where it is…