THE OTTOMAN MOTEL

Eleven year old Simon and his parents arrive in the small coastal town of Reception and check in to the Ottoman Motel. Simon's mother and father decide to go out sightseeing for a while; he stays behind at the motel and falls asleep.

When he wakes it is late and his parents have not returned. Are they lost? Have they simply driven away and left him?

As a desultory police investigation begins, Simon finds himself pitched into the complex web of Reception's relationships, past and present. This is a town with secrets, it seems. And as Simon gets to know the local children, he realises something else: his are not the first parents to go missing in Reception.

THE OTTOMAN MOTEL is not just an intriguing character-based mystery, but a moving study of childhood fear and loss. With this assured and nuanced debut, Christopher Currie proves himself to be one of the brightest young novelists in Australia.

Christopher Currie is a 28 year old writer from Brisbane whose fiction has appeared in anthologies and journals internationally. In 2007, his novella Dearly Departed appeared in Five Mile Press's Love and Desire: Four Modern Australian Novellas. The Ottoman Motel is his first novel.