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Deb Fitzpatrick

writer

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Deb Fitzpatrick

writer

The Break

the break book cover 2014

The south-west coast is the kind of place people escape to. Unless you have lived there all your life, in which case, you long to get away.

Rosie and Cray chuck in their city jobs to move to Margaret River while Liza, Ferg and Sam have been there forever, working their lives away on the family farm.

Under pressure from developers, the two families come together in the community’s efforts against unwanted change. But a natural disaster on the coastline they love opens deep wounds, and the true nature of community is revealed.

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Reviews for The Break

Fitzpatrick’s love and knowledge of her home state is evident. Her prose is fluid and evocative […] the sea is almost another character in the novel. The Break will resonate with fans of Tim Winton, as Fitzpatrick writes about the natural environment with similar texture and intensity.

Books+Publishing

There is some startlingly good, original and moving writing about landscape and place in this novel. It’s a brave writer who takes on landscape writing, in an area so close to the region that Tim Winton has over decades made so unforgettably his own. But Fitzpatrick’s best writing about the place and its ecology is almost mystical, with an attention to detail at once lyrical and microscopic.

Canberra Times

Quiet, refined, and captivating, The Break explores the emotional fissures that open up inside and between people, and, ultimately, how those rifts are healed.

Australian Book Review

The novel explores the experience of settling in and adapting to a rural lifestyle in contrast with the feeling of being trapped into living a parent’s expectations rather than following one’s own. Conflicts and doubts are often unspoken, and the boy’s awareness of his parents’ crumbling marriage is touching to read. […] The fragility of the environment is mirrored in the fragility of the human relationships under scrutiny.

ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

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Out now!

tawny trouble book cover by deb fitzpatrick 2024

When Tessa’s family accidentally hit a tawny frogmouth while driving through the bush at night, they feel terrible. But the tawny is alive and needs their help. Read more

About me

deb fitzpatrick writer

Deb Fitzpatrick writes books for adventurous kids with big hearts. She lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, and loves encouraging young writers in her creative writing workshops. Deb has an MA (Creative Writing) from UWA. Read more

Copyright © 2025 Deb Fitzpatrick