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Tasmanian Literary Awards

Two Sets of Books by Ruairi Murphy (Ruairi Murphy Publishing)

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Two Sets of Books

Set in Hobart public library, Two Sets of Books contains eight stories, each exposing the astonishing secret lives of the people who work there. A book shelver burns down the library out of love. A technical support officer recreates a woman in an illegal sex videogame. A mute librarian is slaughtered and eaten in a vindictive fantasy. A home service courier gives an elderly widow an offer she can’t refuse. An archivist attempts to save a woman’s life with a rare book. A children’s librarian uses the power of story to learn who is abusing a child. A young librarian is seduced into killing a paedophile. A security guard deciphers book titles to prevent an armed robbery. Sex, drugs, cannibalism, arson, armed robbery—this is not the library as you know it

About the author

Ruairi is a librarian and writer living in Hobart. Two Sets of Books was drawn from his formative years as a librarian with the State Library of Tasmania. The idea for the book received the runner-up prize in the 2014 Festival of Golden Words Pitch competition in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, and the manuscript was shortlisted in the 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s literary awards, a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird digital literary award, and a semi-finalist in the 2020 Hawk Mountain short story collection award