''The Dry'' is the 2016

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

by Australian author

Jane Harper Jane Harper (born 1980) is a British–Australian author known for her crime novels '' The Dry'', ''Force of Nature'' and ''The Lost Man'', all set in rural Australia. Early life Born in Manchester in the UK, Harper moved to Australia with her ...

. The book has won numerous international awards and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. A film adaptation starring

Eric Bana Eric Banadinović, (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana (), is an Australian actor and comedian. He began his career in the sketch comedy series '' Full Frontal'' before gaining notice in the comedy drama '' The Castle'' (19 ...

was released on 1 January 2021 with great success, placing it as one of the highest grossing Australian film opening weekends ever.

Synopsis

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

agent Aaron Falk returns to the struggling farming community of Kiewarra for the funeral of his childhood best friend, Luke Hadler. Severe

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

has put the town under extreme pressure and the community is shocked but not surprised when the Hadler family is found dead in their farmhouse. While Falk is loath to confront the townspeople who rejected him twenty years earlier, the circumstances around the deaths of the Hadlers, that appears to be a murder-suicide, compels him to dig deeper into the events leading up to the tragedy.

Reception

''The Dry'' has won multiple major awards, including the British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year 2018, the UK Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel 2017, the Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year Award 2017, Amazon Best Mystery and Thriller Novel Award 2017, Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery Thriller and Best Debut 2017, the Australian Book Industry Award for Australian Book of the Year 2017, the Indie Book Award for Book of the Year 2017, the Barry Award for Best First Novel of 2017.

Film adaptation

The film rights for ''The Dry'' were optioned by producers

Bruna Papandrea Bruna Papandrea (born 1971) is an Australian film and television producer and the founder of production company Made Up Stories. Prior to Made Up Stories, Papandrea co-founded the production company Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon. E ...

and

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...

in 2015 and was produced by Bruna Papandrea's production company, Made Up Stories.

starred in the lead role of Aaron Falk, with

Genevieve O'Reilly Genevieve O'Reilly (born 6 January 1977) is an Irish actress. She is known for her work in the ''Star Wars'' franchise as Mon Mothma, having portrayed the character in ''Revenge of the Sith'', ''Rogue One'', and the Disney+ series '' Andor'', ...

as Gretchen and Keir O'Donnell as Raco. Principal photography began in March 2019 in the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, including the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...

Mallee region. The film was due for release on 27 August 2020 but was delayed due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was released by Roadshow Films in Australia and New Zealand on January 1, 2021 and broke box office records, making it one of the highest grossing Australian film opening weekends ever.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dry, The 2016 debut novels Australian crime novels 2016 Australian novels Australian novels adapted into films Novels by Jane Harper Novels set in Australia Macmillan Publishers books