The Grand Hotel

'A hotel as a work of art in little ol' Mangowak? It was about as unlikely as an indoor creek.'

Robbed of his zest for life by the absurd innovations of the local shire, including knocking down the only pub in his beloved home town and roofing over a section of the creek to protect bathers from the rain, artist Noel Lea exiles himself in the hills above Mangowak, on the south-west Victorian coast. He returns to find an unexpected destiny awaits. At a turning point in the town's history it seems he has a crucial role to play, as the unlikely publican of an even unlikelier hotel.

This is a novel about a twenty-first-century Australian hotel with a difference, where the toilets play automated Dadaist recordings, Happy Hour comes with a blessing from the Pope and the voice of the surrounding landscape is so strong that it's broadcast through the dreams of one of its patrons. Noel embarks on a spiritual quest to restore his and his punters' affinity with their environment and solve the mystery of what happened to the original Grand Hotel - all the while keeping an unforgettable cast of characters well served with their cherished Dancing Brolga Ale - before the wowser authorities can succeed in their quest to close him down.

The Grand Hotel is a tour de force from the award-winning author of The Patron Saint of Eels that vividly depicts the absurdities and yearnings of contemporary Australian life.