ABOUT SUZANNE

‘Impossible to put down. Leal is a master storyteller. Mesmerising, heartbreaking, honest—The Deceptions is ferociously good.’

Suzanne is the author of novels  The Watchful Wife,  The Deceptions, The Teacher’s Secret and Border Street. Her debut children’s novel is Running With Ivan, a story of time travel and adventure. A regular presenter at literary, corporate, community and school  events, she is the former chair of the fiction and poetry panel for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards and is a board member of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival.  From 2017 to 2019, she was the senior judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. A keen traveller, she is a fluent French and German speaker. 

Suzanne’s third novel, The Deceptions, was inspired by a story told to her by her former landlords and neighbours, Fred and Eva Perger, Czech-Australians who had survived the Holocaust. The wartime experiences of Fred Perger also inspired Suzanne’s debut children’s novel, Running With Ivan. A fascination for the intrigues of the schoolyard inspired Suzanne’s second novel, The Teacher’s Secret, which follows the joys and tribulations of the beachside village of Brindle and the local school at the centre of this close-knit community.

A lawyer experienced in child protection, criminal law and refugee law, Suzanne is a senior member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal and former member of the Refugee Review Tribunal. She lives in Sydney with her husband, David, her four children, Alex, Dominic, Xavier and Miranda and their Japanese Spitz, Milly.

'A remarkably engaging writer, able to conceive characters and worlds that draw you in and hold you close.’

The Australian

‘I write because it is my imperative; without it, I feel unsettled and agitated. I write to make sense of a world I do not always understand.’

WHY I WRITE . . .

I seek to make my writing accessible and to make it sing. I strive never to be didactic. I simply want to explore ideas and hold them up to scrutiny. I want to turn over the rock in the garden, see what’s underneath and hold it up to the sunlight.

I am interested in vulnerability, in all its dimensions. I want to look at what makes people vulnerable, how their vulnerability manifests, how they deal with it themselves and how they deal with those around them.

While I seek simplicity in my writing, I also like my writing to be layered and for the themes I explore to be reflected not only in the language itself but in the rhythm of the language.

I have worked in criminal law, refugee law, guardianship and child protection. In my role as a tribunal member, I conduct hearings and write decisions. Each hearing is, in essence, the telling of a story and each decision the resolution of a problem before me: whether a person should be granted refugee status or be allowed to work with children or be appointed to manage another person’s financial affairs.

Such issues often find their way into my writing as I consider the dilemmas of the fictional characters I create. Working in law has made me a clearer and more focused writer and I try to bring these qualities to my creative work.

My novel, The Deceptions, was inspired by a story told to me by my former landlords, Fred and Eva Perger, who were Czech and Jewish and who had both survived the Holocaust.

As teenagers, Fred and Eva had been sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto, a Jewish internment camp outside Prague. Whilst there, they got to know a Czech gendarme whose job was to guard the camp but who was also having a clandestine affair with one of the Jewish detainees. Some months later, the gendarme and his lover disappeared from the camp. After the war, he returned home but her fate remained unknown.

Over the years, I found myself wondering what had happened to her. I didn’t have enough information to research her actual life – I didn’t even know her name - but at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. In the end, I gave in and, using my imagination, I recreated her instead.

My novel The Teacher’s Secret took me into the world of a seaside primary school and the lives of students, parents and teachers which live nearby.  I wanted to examine what happens when a scandal unfolds in a close knot community.   In The Watchful Wife, I return to the schoolyard, but this time the students are in high school and their teacher arrested for a crime he swears he didn’t commit. As I follow him from his arrest, I wanted to explore how a wife might cope with such a situation, and how far she might go to protect the man she loves. 

THURSDAY BOOK CLUB

Thursday Book Club is a relaxed place to talk books and writing. I’ll discuss what I’ve been reading (and writing), we’ll share book recommendations and I’ll keep you informed of upcoming literary events. Drop in as you can – it doesn’t matter if you’re late or have to leave early.

SUZANNE’S NOVELS

‘Leal is a master storyteller. Impossible to put down.’

NIKKI GEMMELL

PRAISE FOR SUZANNE’S WORK

PRAISE FOR THE DECEPTIONS

‘The Deceptions is a stunning example of the way fiction tells war better than any other form—I could taste its madness, its horror. Saw from the outside, its utter absurdity. For days after reading the novel I found myself wrestling with the price of betrayal, and the value of truth.’
Sofie Laguna, winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award

‘Those who grew up in the shadow of the Second World War had Elie Wiesel’s Night to define for them the enormity for the Holocaust. Those who were born later can now rely upon Suzanne Leal’s brilliant and confronting novel The Deceptions to open their eyes to the true horrors
of Nazism.’
Alan Gold, author of Bloodline

‘At what cost can a survivor of hell rebuild a seemingly normal life? The Deceptions is a gripping and tragic story for our times.’
Leah Kaminsky, author of The Hollow Bones

‘Impossible to put down. Leal is a master storyteller. Mesmerising, heartbreaking, honest—The Deceptions is ferociously good.’
Nikki Gemmell, author of After

PRAISE FOR THE TEACHER’S SECRET

 ‘In The Teacher’s Secret, Leal intelligently sifts a great many personal and professional observations and political reflection.’
The Weekend Australian

 ‘Given its multiple perspectives, The Teacher’s Secret is a fast-paced novel. This is a product of suspense, and Leal’s ability to take readers straight to the heart of each character’s dilemma.’
The Sydney Morning Herald 

‘This multi-layered story of hope in the face of adversity is great book club fodder.’
West Weekend Magazine 

‘Suzanne Leal rapidly builds suspense while gracefully exploring the themes of trust, humiliation and what really constitutes good and evil.’
Sydney’s Child

 ‘An eloquent story of a life thrown into disarray; it drew me in and held me, page after page.’
Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room

‘Beautifully written, entirely absorbing, and full of characters that live with you long after you finish reading, The Teacher’s Secret is packed with heart and suspense… This brilliant book is a true page-turner, and I absolutely loved it.’
Jenny Ashcroft, author of Beneath a Burning Sky

‘A delicately woven tapestry of interlinking stories… This is a big-hearted book about a small community and how small acts of kindness and courage, and the willingness to face the truth, restore the human spirit to a sense of new belonging.’
Joanne Fedler, author of Secret Mothers’ Business

‘Elegantly structured, unsettling, yet with moments of surprising wit – in this novel Suzanne Leal captures the life of a small community with real tenderness.’
Kathryn Heyman, author of The Accomplice

‘Masterfully constructed, this moving novel warns us of our capacity to make or break the lives of those around us… Drawn with wit and clear-eyed affection, the inhabitants of this wonderful novel will remain with you long after you have put it down.’
Mark Lamprell, author of The Full Ridiculous

‘Leal’s novel shows us, achingly and beautifully, the slippery nature of truth and the destruction that is occasionally wrought from good intensions.
Maggie Joel, author of The Safest Place in London

‘A rich interweaving of beautifully drawn characters told so gently and in such exquisite detail that they grew on me until I was lost in their world.’
Robin de Crespigny, filmmaker and author of The People Smuggler

‘The Teacher’s Secret is a gutsy yet intricate examination of one of society’s nightmares, filled with strong characters and relationships interwoven in a storyline that has the reader engrossed to the last page.’
Robert Wainwright, author of Sheila

‘Suspenseful, moving and full of heart. I couldn’t put it down.
Richard Glover, author of Flesh Wounds

PRAISE FOR BORDER STREET

‘A deceptively quiet novel. Beneath Leal’s simple prose and gentle humour is an astute and subtle study of grief, love and the value of human intimacy – however complex and imperfect it may be.’
Australian Book Review

‘Utterly engrossing and moving… An exquisitely poised and intelligent unveiling of secrets; a book honouring the hidden, the intimate and the painfully unresolved.
Gail Jones, author of Five Bells

‘A book that looms closer with every page…By the end, you start seeing the characters on the street, and you hear their voices in your sleep.
Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief

‘The unpretentious nature of [Leal’s] prose belies the subtlety of what she is doing. We follow Frank from the infamous Theresienstadt Ghetto into “the camps” and the tale is chilling. Kate becomes Frank’s listener and Cam becomes jealous. Leal is able to create shades and nuances in all these characters as she draws Kate and Cam towards a sadness of their own.’
Sydney Morning Herald