Picnic at Hanging Rock: A Novel

The classic novel about the disappearance of three boarding school girls that inspired the acclaimed film

It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . .

Mysterious and subtly erotic,Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley JacksonsWe Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du MauriersRebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides The Virgin Suicidesas a masterpiece of haunting intrigue.