‘One of the most anticipated books of the year’ Books Publishing

‘The Pies beat the Saints and the city of Melbourne was still cloaked in black and white crepe paper when the rumour of a pack rape by celebrating footballers began to surface. By morning, the head of the sexual crimes squad confirmed to journalists that they were preparing to question two Collingwood players ... And so, as police were confiscating bedsheets from a townhouse in South Melbourne, the trial by media began.’ - Night Games

What does a young footballer do to cut loose? At night, some play what they think of as pranks, or games. Night games with women. Sometimes these involve consensual sex, but sometimes they don’t, and sometimes they fall into a grey area.

In the tradition of Helen Garner’s The First Stone comes a closely observed, controversial book about sex, consent and power. In Night Games, Anna Krien follows the rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer. She also takes a balanced and fearless look at the dark side of footy culture - the world of Sam Newman, Ricky Nixon, Matty Johns and the Cronulla Sharks.

Both a courtroom drama and a riveting work of narrative journalism, this is a breakthrough book by one of the leading young lights of Australian writing.

About the author:

Anna Krien’s first book, Into the Woods, won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award. Krien is also the author of the Quarterly Essay Us and Them: On the Importance of Animals, which won the 2012 Voiceless Writing Prize and was shortlisted for the John Button Prize and the Walkley Award for magazine feature writing. Her writing has been published in the Monthly, the Age, the Big Issue and the Best Australian Essays, Poems and Stories.

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