Sunny Garden
the official Nick Earls website
4 8 S h a d e s o f B r o w n
Read Nick Earls' speech to the Children's Book Council.
A few months ago, Dan had to make a choice. Go to Geneva with his parents for a year, board at school or move into a share house with his 22-year-old bass-playing aunt, Jacq, and her friend, Naomi. He picked Jacq's place.
Now he's doing his last year at school and trying not to spin out. Trying to master calculus and work out the meaning of the fish-tank scene in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet. Trying to pick up a few skills for surviving in the adult world. Problem is, he falls for Naomi, and things become much, much more confusing.
A brilliantly observed and very funny novel about being not quite seventeen - a time when everyone is offering you advice, and nobody is taking you seriously.
(Jacket blurb from 48 Shades of Brown)
US cover of 48 Shades of Brown
48 Shades of Brown - the play
Dan is on a steep learning curve. It's not just that he's in his final year of school. When his parents go to Europe he moves in with his 22-year-old, bass-playing aunt Jacq and her friend Naomi. He should be concentrating on calculus and the fish-tank scene in Romeo + Juliet, but in a desperate bid to impress Naomi, Dan secretly starts memorising some more obscure information.
Adapted from Nick Earls' award-winning novel, this is a gently comic tale of intimacy, ornithology and fresh pesto.
Praise for '48 Shades of Brown'
"At its best, this writer's voice evokes the brilliance of Martin Amis"Sydney Morning Herald
"a brilliantly funny guided tour of adolescent angst ... a wonderful book, with Earls' gentle mocking of human foibles a constant delight. This is laugh-out-loud funny and when it comes to putting a name to the funniest writer in Australia today, I'm unashamedly in Earls' court."
Chris Bartlett, The Sunday Mail
"it's hard to imagine any reader recalcitrant enough to resist Nick Earls's 48 Shades of Brown"
Jenny Pausacker, The Australian
"a terrific read. It's amusing, skilfully written and behind all the brashness of the young male world is a sensitivity and a grappling with the complexities of life. That has to be a theme worth exploring."
Tess Brady, Australian Book Review
"supposed to be a "young adult" book, but you'd have to be 102 and fossilised not to find it seriously cute ... clever, funny and makes you wish you were 16 again, but only if you could be sure that teenage boys are just like Dan."
NW
"Nobody in this country does hormone-flooded, angst-wracked sexually unsure but engagingly self-mocking young males as brilliantly and funnily as Nick Earls ... I could picture Nick Earls reading from it to litfest audiences, who rightly find him hugely entertaining."
Ruth Starke, Viewpoint
Takeaway menu
Order 48 Shades of Brown online at:
Dymocks (Australia) Collins Books (Australia)Alternatively, if you want to order it in at your local bookstore, the ISBN is 0140287698
The play version of the novel is available from Currency Press. Details of stockists available on their web page. If you would prefer to order the play in at your local bookstore, the ISBN is 0868196525
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Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls and Penguin Books. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz
All original contents are © Liz Perkins.