Author Venero Armanno’s long-awaited 11th novel has been released. Like most of Brisbane-based Armanno’s novels, The Crying Forest took inspiration from the author’s real life and involved research into new areas his previous books haven’t ventured.
Prior to this, Armanno’s novel, The Volcano, won Best Fiction Book of the Year in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award. His work has been published in the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Israel and South Korea.
In this dark, twisted and terrifying novel, The Crying Forest introduces us to characters who are much more than they appear on the surface, and even delves deeply into the realms of Italian witches and werewolves. “The Crying Forest is a literary supernatural tale in that characters’ emotions, their relationships and personal baggage really drive the plot — as well as a lot of real history,” said Armanno.
“It’s my first foray into the supernatural with original inspiration coming from a very spooky house my pregnant wife and I moved to, which is in an isolated area next to a large state forest frequented by wild packs of dogs that howled at night and waged battles with a proliferation of introduced deer. It all just seemed to cry out for a novel about the supernatural, but being outside of my usual genres, it’s taken a lot of time and research to bring to fruition.”
Armanno was born in Brisbane and came to books at the age of three, impressing his parents by reading articles to them from local newspapers. At just 18 while studying Law and Psychology at university, and working as a bricklayer’s labourer on weekends, Armanno completed his first novel, Darker Than Night. Armanno set his mind on becoming a published writer, eventually being shortlisted for the Australian-Vogel Literary Award in 1984. He teaches creative writing at the University of Queensland and is a trained screenwriter.
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