Winner of the 2016 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize

The freshest writing to come out of Melbourne since Christos Tsiolkas’ Loaded.

Nick is treading water. No boyfriend. No career. Living in a granny flat in Fitzroy North. On a whim he decides to travel with his twin sister, Amira, to Lebanon in search of their estranged father. Their mother, who passed away a couple of years earlier, only ever referred to him as the kalb – the dog. In Beirut Nick and Amira find family, a sense of belonging and surprising answers to questions they hadn’t known to ask.

With a razor-sharp wit, incisive social critiques and intensity of feeling, Populate and Perish announces George Haddad as a vital new voice in Australian fiction.