'Black Mountain is an eerie and compelling read ... Like the best of fiction, it remains with you long after you have finished.’ Christos Tsiolkas Beginning in the sulphur mines of Sicily over a century ago, Black Mountain takes you on a journey through time and back again. When a boy sold into slavery finds the courage to escape his brutal life, he is saved by a mysterious stranger, who raises the boy as his own. Renamed Cesare Montenero after Sicily’s own ‘black mountain’, Mount Etna, the boy grows up to discover that his rescue was no accident, that his physical strength is unnatural, and that he has more in common with his saviour than he could have imagined. And when he meets the enigmatic Celeste, he suspects for the first time that he many not be alone. Based on factual events and ranging through Italy, Paris and the rural fringes of coastal Australia, Black Mountain is a haunting exploration of what it means to be human. ‘Black Mountain is lush, ambitious storytelling that gives historical fiction a dark and unexpected inflection, as well as grappling with those eternal questions of fate and identity.’ Readings Monthly