The Well

'What have you brought me, Hester? What have you brought me from the shop?' 'I've brought Katherine, Father,' Miss Harper said. 'I've brought Katherine, but she's for me.'

Miss Hester Harper, middle-aged and eccentric, brings a young woman into her isolated existence on an Australian sheep farm. Together she and Katherine sew, cook gourmet meals for two, run the farm, make music and throw away their dirty dishes.

Then one night, driving along the deserted track home, they hit a mysterious creature. They heave the body from the roo bar and dump it into the farm's deep well, where Hester knows it will never be found. But Katherine, drawn closer and closer to the edge of the well, begins to hear the voice of the injured intruder .

Originally published in 1986, this re-edition of the Australian gothic masterpiece is introduced by Alice Slater, who describes The Well as 'a.pitch-black, pitch-perfect depiction of desire, jealousy and control',

"Jolley is one of our most daring writers", Helen Garner