Green Dot

By: Madeleine Gray

Narrated by: Sasha Simon

Hera Stephen is clawing through her mid-twenties, working as an underpaid comment moderator in an overly air-conditioned newsroom by day and kicking around Sydney with her two best friends by night. Instead of money or stability, she has so far accrued one ex-girlfriend, several hundred hangovers, and a dog-eared novel collection. While everyone around her seems to have slipped effortlessly into adulthood, Hera has spent the years since school caught between feeling that she is purposefully rejecting traditional markers of success to forge a life of her own and wondering if she's actually just being left behind. Then she meets Arthur, an older, married colleague. Intoxicated by the promise of ordinary happiness he represents, Hera falls headlong into a workplace romance that everyone, including her, knows is doomed to fail.

Green Dot is witty, profound and painfully relatable in its exploration of solitude, desire, and the allure of chasing something that promises nothing. It is a must-hear for fans of Meg Mason, Sally Rooney and Dolly Alderton.

‘I felt so much joy reading this utterly assured writing. Green Dot is written with such poise, such confidence, I could not look away. I was mesmerised by its sheer brilliance.' JESSIE TU, author of A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing

‘I wolfed Green Dot down over two nights. An incredibly funny book about a woman having an affair that's a really bad idea. Every sentence sparkles' CAITLIN MORAN, author of How to Be a Woman

'I am obsessed with this book. I am obsessed with Hera, with her dad, her friends, her dog. I am obsessed with how funny she is, and how hopeful and dark and tender and bleak the world is through her eyes. Green Dot is a book about love, and how stupid and funny and absolutely beautiful life can be. I would read it forever if I could.' LAURA MCPHEE-BROWNE, author of Cherry Beach

‘Brilliant. Riveting. Sharp. Funny. Dark. I want to give Green Dot all the adjectives but will content myself with saying it is one of the best books you will read all year' ELIZABETH DAY, host and author of How to Fail

‘If you liked Fleabag you will enjoy Green Dot, an Australian debut about whimsical twenty-something Hera, who falls for an unsuitable man' PANDORA SYKES, author of How Do We Know We're Doing it Right?

‘Laugh-out-loud funny and beautifully, brutally relatable—Green Dot is a book that will stay with me for a very long time.' EWA RAMSEY, author of The Morbids

‘Incredibly funny and a bit too real. This debut novel captures the zeitgeist.' BRIGID DELANEY, author of Reasons Not to Worry and Wellmania

‘Just brilliant. Hilarious and sexy but so wise about the human heart, too. Witty as Fleabag, psychologically insightful as Sally Rooney—everyone will be talking about Green Dot' LUCIE WHITEHOUSE, author of Keep You Close

'A gripping read that's smart, funny and highly relatable' LIBBY PAGE, author of The Lido

©2023 Madeleine Gray (P)2023 Allen & Unwin