TOP SHELF SEZ:
“Anyone willing to get filthy can also get rich.” In this dystopian swamp city, two brothers find that opportunity and exploitation lurk around every corner. But who’s smarter: the hordes of people rushing to move in, or the equal horde desperate to leave?

Penn and Lipton Wise have set out to Falter City to make their fortune. It’s the future, obviously, and things are pretty grim. The Australian landscape is traumatized. Plague is rampant. Machines only work as well as the poor sod pedaling them. Things are hotter and wetter than they used to be, giving the whole place the vibe of a sweaty armpit.

Lippy and Penn are hoping to set up shop in this grimy boom-town, but they've got to stay frosty, because it’s teeming with hustlers, swindlers, and scoundrels. It’s the sort of place where a lucky moron could make an outrageous fortune in an afternoon and lose it all before bedtime. The sort of place where two enterprising teenagers could really make something of themselves. Or so they say.

In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed Blue, Pat Grant confirms his reputation as “the Australian Mark Twain” (Craig Thompson, author of Blankets and Habibi) with a page-turning graphic novel about economic inequality, desperation, and the gambler’s addiction to hope even in the worst of times. -- a 200-page, full-color softcover graphic novel with 3” French Flaps, 180mm (width) by 253mm (height)

Finalist for the Aurealis Award! Winner of the Bronze Ledger Award / Comic Arts Awards of Australia!

“The Grot has the makings of a true Australian classic. As absurdly funny as it is disturbingly realistic." -- Shaun Tan, Author of The Arrival

"A twisting plot and a seething, filthy world thread together in these hand-made pages, each one a work of art and some so beautiful they take my breath away. The Grot is comics magic in its purest form." -- Thi Bui, Author of The Best We Could Do

"A pus-filled adventure full of tricks, likes, and scams. A comic so disgusting that you can SMELL IT!" -- Campbell Whyte, Author of Home Time

"Grant develops this grotty world and its particulars steadily and surely, and it becomes impossible not to root for the brothers as they fall prey to con artists and a city without pity." — Library Journal

"While the con plot is thrilling and the ne’er-do-well characters have a scampy charm, the devastating reality for the rest of the city looms in the periphery... For all its arch comedy, there’s a sharp condemnation of thoughtlessness here, too, and the careful balance between those poles is quite arresting." — Booklist

"A timely quarantine read imagining Australian life in a climate-ravaged world... For a story written long before the COVID-19 pandemic, some of The Grot's ideas feel eerily of the moment." — ABC Arts News

FROM THE ARCHIVES - ONE NEW COPY