Authors Similar like Jenny Downham

Garrett Carr

THE BOY FROM THE SEA
"A novel of heart-bumping power and sparkling vividness, this book evokes the seethe and surge of an island nation's sea fables while being suspicious of sentiment, often wittily so. A story about a very specific place that somehow comes to seem an everywhere and a people who feel familiar as faces in mirrors. A breathtaking achievement." Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea and My Father's House.

“Compulsive reading . . . Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment.” Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

"The Boy from the Sea is a single-generation family saga as dazzlingly compact as it is comprehensively insightful, a love story in which the tenderness and forbearance are all the more moving for the eloquence wit

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Autumn Cornwell

Squat toilets, profuse sweating, jumbo centipedes, ear nibbling—these are just some of the delights I’ve encountered in my global adventures, which inspired my first YA comedic adventure, CARPE DIEM, published in the U.S. by Macmillan, followed by foreign editions in Germany (“Guten Tag!”), the Netherlands, and China. The novel follows the story of overachiever Vassar Spore who is forced to backpack through Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos with her wacky bohemian grandma—and experiences enough misadventures to last a lifetime. Most of which (fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be) really happened to me!

My work with the refugees and persecuted minority groups of Southeast Asia inspired my latest YA comedic adventure, NEVER SORRY EVER

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Kristina McBride

Kristina McBride has published four novels for young adults - THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES, ONE MOMENT, A MILLION TIMES GOODNIGHT, and THE BAKERSVILLE DOZEN. Kristina is a former high school English teacher and yearbook advisor, as well as an adjunct professor at Antioch University Midwest and Wright State University. Kristina has a thing for music, trees, purses, and chocolate. You might be surprised to learn that Kristina was almost kidnapped when she was a child. She also bookstalks people on a regular basis. Kristina lives in Ohio with her husband and two young children. You can learn more at www.kristinamcbride.com.

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Caroline O'Donoghue

Caroline O'Donoghue is a New York Times bestselling author and host of the Sentimental Garbage podcast. She writes fiction for adults and teenagers.

I only leave five star reviews on Goodreads, and i keep two star reviews inside my horrid brain where they can’t start beef with other authors

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Dervla McTiernan

Number one internationally bestselling author Dervla McTiernan is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of six novels, including the much-loved Cormac Reilly series and two number 1 bestselling standalone thrillers, The Murder Rule and What Happened to Nina?, both New York Times Best Thrillers of the Year and both currently in development for screen adaptation. Dervla is also the author of four novellas, and her audio novella, The Sisters, was a four-week number one bestseller in the United States. Before turning her hand to writing, Dervla spent twelve years working as a lawyer in her home country of Ireland. Following the global financial crisis, she relocated to Western Australia where she now lives with her husband, two chil

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Matt Goodfellow

Matt Goodfellow was a primary school teacher for more than ten years before becoming a full-time poet and author. Shu Lin’s Grandpa is his first book with Candlewick Press. He lives with his wife and children in Manchester, England.

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Melanie Cheng

I am a writer, mum and general practitioner from Melbourne, Australia. I have been published in print and online. My writing has appeared in The Age, Meanjin, Overland, Griffith REVIEW, Sleepers Almanac, The Bridport Prize Anthology, Lascaux Review, Visible Ink, Peril, The Victorian Writer and Seizure. My short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript and went on to win the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. My latest book is the novel, Room for a Stranger. If Saul Bellow is right and “a writer is a reader moved to emulation” then I am moved by authors like Richard Yates, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami and Christos Tsiolkas.

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Ellie Marney

Ellie Marney is a multi-award-winning, bestselling author of thrillers for teens and adults. Her titles include the New York Times bestseller None Shall Sleep, the Kirkus-starred sequel, Some Shall Break, and the electrifying finale All Shall Mourn. Ellie's other titles include ARA Historical Novel Prize-nominated The Killing Code and Australian library favorite Every Breath. Her debut adult thriller No One Is Safe is arriving 10th February 2026.

Ellie has spent a lifetime researching in mortuaries, talking to autopsy specialists, and asking former spies how to make explosives from household items - now she lives quite sedately in south-eastern Australia with her family. Find sign-ups for her newsletter, The Black Hand, at her website, an

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Stewart Foster

Stewart Foster lives in Bath and wishes he'd never left school. So he went back to university far too many years later and he wrote a book, We used to be Kings, and then he wrote another, The Bubble Boy, that was loved by The Guardian and many others. It won Sainsbury's book of the year 2016 (10+) and The Trinity Schools Book Award 2017 and many other library awards

'All the things that could go Wrong" has also won many school and library awards, and continues to be shortlisted.

His next novel will be published in May 2019

Like his page on Facebook - Stewart Foster Author and follow him on twitter @stewfoster1.

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Hannah Kent

Hannah Kent's first novel, the international bestseller, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into 30 languages and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's People's Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Hannah's second novel, The Good People was published in 2016 (ANZ) and 2017 (Feb, UK; Sept, North America). It was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Indie Book Award for Fiction and the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year. It has been translated into 10 languages.

Hannah’s original feature fil

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Pip Harry

Pip Harry is an Australian children’s author and journalist. Her middle grade novel, The Little Wave, won the CBCA 2020 Book of the Year Award and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards – Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature.

Her young adult novels include I’ll Tell You Mine, Head of the River, and Because of You, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award and Queensland Literary Awards.

Are You There, Buddha? is a 2022 CBCA Notable book and was nominated for the Ethel Turner prize.

Pip’s latest middle grade novel, August & Jones is out now.

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Margot McGovern

Margot McGovern lives in Adelaide and has a creative writing PhD from Flinders University. Her debut novel, Neverland, was shortlisted for the Text Prize and the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature.

Her second novel, This Stays Between Us, will be published in March 2025.

Margot's short horror fiction has appeared in issues of The Dark and the Aurealis-Award-shortlisted anthology Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales.

You can find Margot on Instagram: @margot.mcgovern

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Margaret Hickey

Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is deeply interested in rural lives and communities. She is the author of Cutters End and Stone Town.

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Sarah Moss

Sarah Moss is the award-winning author of six novels: Cold Earth, Night Waking, selected for the Fiction Uncovered Award in 2011, Bodies of Light, Signs for Lost Children and The Tidal Zone, all shortlisted for the prestigious Wellcome Prize, and her new book Ghost Wall, out in September 2018.

She has also written a memoir of her year living in Iceland, Names for the Sea, which was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2013.

Sarah Moss is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in England.

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Patrice Lawrence

Patrice Lawrence is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize.

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Helen Garner

Helen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942. She has published many works of fiction including Monkey Grip, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Children's Bach. Her fiction has won numerous awards. She is also one of Australia's most respected non-fiction writers, and received a Walkley Award for journalism in 1993.

Her most recent books are The First Stone, True Stories, My Hard Heart, The Feel of Stone and Joe Cinque's Consolation. In 2006 she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She lives in Melbourne.

Praise for Helen Garner's work

'Helen Garner is an extraordinarily good writer. There is not a paragraph, let alone a page, where she does not compel your attention.'
Bulletin

'She is outstanding in the accuracy of her observations, the intensity of passio

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Belinda Alexandra

Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia and internationally. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer carer for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).
Belinda is also an ambassador for the World League for the Protection of Animals (Australia) and lives in Sydney with a menagerie of adored pets.
Join Belinda's community of readers at facebook.com/BelindaAlexandraAuthor

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John Boyne

I was born in Dublin, Ireland, and studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA.

I’ve published 14 novels for adults, 6 novels for younger readers, and a short story collection. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was a New York Times no.1 Bestseller and was adapted for a feature film, a play, a ballet and an opera, selling around 11 million copies worldwide.

Among my most popular books are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and My Brother’s Name is Jessica.

I’m also a regular book reviewer for The Irish Times.

In 2012, I was awarded the Hennessy Literary ‘Hall of Fame’ Award for my body of work. I’v

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Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honour. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.
Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. He worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. His first novel, The Circle of Reason, was published in 1986, which he followed with later fictional works, including The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace.

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Kirsty Eagar

Kirsty Eagar grew up on a central Queensland cattle property and spent her school holidays at the beach. After studying economics, she worked on trading desks in Sydney and London before changing careers, wanting a life where she could surf every day. She travelled around Australia for a couple of years, worked a variety of jobs and began writing fiction. Her debut novel, Raw Blue, was published by Penguin in 2009, and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult fiction. Saltwater Vampires, her second novel, was shortlisted for the 2011 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. Kirsty lives with her husband and two daughters on Sydney’s northern beaches.

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David Michie

David Michie is the internationally best-selling author of The Magician of Lhasa series, The Dalai Lama's Cat series, and several non-fiction titles on meditation and Buddhism. His books are published in over 30 languages and 50 countries.

In 2015 he established Mindful Safaris to Africa.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/David-Michie/e...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmichiea...
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dnmichie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidmichieom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidmichie...

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Laura Whitcomb

Laura Whitcomb grew up in Pasadena, California in a mildly haunted house. She received her English degree at California State University at Northridge in 1993. She has taught Language Arts in California and Hawaii. She has won three Kay Snow Awards and was once runner up in the Bulwer-Lytton writing contest for the best first sentence of the worst Science Fiction novel never written. In her spare time she sings madrigals with the Sherwood Renaissance Singers and is the props mistress for the Portland Christmas Revels. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon, with her son Robinson.

The movie rights for A Certain Slant of Light sold to Kristin Hahn, producer of The Departed. ACSOL will be published in Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Germ

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Andrea Badenoch

Died of breast cancer aged 52, Andrea Badenoch had studied and taught literature for much of her life, but came late to writing. Once embarked on her new career, she wrote a book a year until 2002.
She was born on Tyneside, then moved to Leeds. She was educated at Leeds Girls' High School and read literature at Manchester University, taking an MA in American literature from London University. Literature and feminism were central to her life: from her work with a south London women's writing project in the late 1970s to her more recent role at the centre of a group of women writers in Newcastle. She co-edited the journal Writing Women for six years, helping to oversee its two anthologies, The Virago Book of Writing Women (1998 and 1999).

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Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks was born in 1959 and grew up in Exeter, Devon, England. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at Birmingham, Aston University in 1980 and Cultural Studies in London in 1983. Kevin Brooks has been in a variety of jobs including: musician, gasoline station attendant, crematorium handyman, civil service clerk, hot dog vendor at the London Zoo, post office clerk, and railway ticket office clerk.

Kevin Brooks's writing career started with the publication of Martyn Pig in 2002 through The Chicken House which won the Branford Boase Award 2003 and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He also wrote Lucas (2002) which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and Booktrust Teenage Prize in 2003 also winning the North Eas

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Jim Harrison

Jim Harrison grew up and lives in the suburbs of Toronto, Canada. He graduated from York University with a degree in Environmental Studies. As a writer he has incorporated his love of nature into his first book, Oasis.

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Sonya Sones

SONYA SONES has written seven young adult novels in verse: Stop Pretending, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know, One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, To Be Perfectly Honest, Saving Red, and The Opposite of Innocent.

Her books have received many awards, including a Christopher Award, the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination and a Cuffie Award from Publisher’s Weekly for Best Book Title of the year. But the coolest honor she ever received was when her novel, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, landed her a spot on the American Library Association’s list of the Most Frequently Banned Authors of the 21st Century. (To find out why, see page

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R.J. Craddock

Born Ruth Jerraisetti Harris in Oka Tamuning, Guam, Ruth is the youngest of eight children. As a young child, she began telling stories, developing unique characters, and conjuring fantastical worlds in her mind. As she grew older, a thirst for reading overcame her and she devoured all kinds of books, finding kindred spirits in classic novelists such as Dickens, Bronte, and Fitzgerald. She started writing her first novel at age eleven. After high school, she attended the Art Institute of Phoenix to pursue her other great passion: Art. Ruth now lives with her husband and five children in Texas.

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Ayaan Mohamud

Ayaan Mohamud wrote her first ever book in lockdown and during NaNoWriMo, while also studying as a medical student, and it became her debut novel. It was inspired by her own experiences of Islamophobia and a desire to write about Somali culture which she hopes to shine more of a light on in YA. She lives in London and can usually be found either writing or complaining about writing. When she isn't doing either of those things, you may find her simply annoying her sisters or daydreaming.

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Angie Faye Martin

Angie Faye Martin is a writer and editor of Kooma, Kamilaroi and European heritage. With a Bachelor of Public Health from the Queensland University of Technology and a Masters of Anthropology from the Australian National University, Angie spent many years working in policy roles in state and federal government before launching Versed Writings in 2019. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Garland, The Saltbush Review and The Rocks Remain. She is a member of the First Nations Australia Writers Network and accredited with the Institute of Professional Editors. Melaleuca is her debut novel.

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Ayaan Mohamud

Ayaan Mohamud wrote her first ever book in lockdown and during NaNoWriMo, while also studying as a medical student, and it became her debut novel. It was inspired by her own experiences of Islamophobia and a desire to write about Somali culture which she hopes to shine more of a light on in YA. She lives in London and can usually be found either writing or complaining about writing. When she isn't doing either of those things, you may find her simply annoying her sisters or daydreaming.

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Sinéad Stubbins

Sinéad Stubbins is a writer, editor and cultural critic in Melbourne.

She writes popular TV recaps for Junkee, most notably on Game of Thrones, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Neighbours, and also writes about film, music and culture for The Guardian, ELLE, frankie, The Big Issue, New York Magazine, Pitchfork and others.

In 2016 she contributed to the University of Queensland Press anthology ‘Doing It’ and has also appeared in two frankie press collections, ‘Something to Say’ and ‘Look What We Made’. She has spoken at the Emerging Writers’ Festival, National Young Writers’ Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and The Wheeler Centre’s Storytelling Gala.

In 2018 she was long-listed for the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. In 202

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Madeleine Ryan

Madeleine Ryan is an Australian writer, director & author. A Room Called Earth was her first novel. Her second novel, The Knowing, is out now. Her third novel, love, honour & obey, is due 2026. Her articles & essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, SBS, The Sydney Morning Herald & VICE.

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Julietta Henderson

Julietta Henderson grew up in the rainforests of North Queensland, and developed her passion for the written word producing 'magazines' for school friends and neighbours with her sister. She has worked her way through jobs as diverse as bicycle tour guide in Tuscany, nanny in the Italian Alps and breakfast waitress in the wilds of Scotland. Like many Australians, her love affair with Europe began when she came to London and stayed for more than a decade.

Now a full-time writer, Julietta divides her life between Melbourne, the UK and wherever else she can find winter.

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Ene Sepp

Ene Sepp is an Estonian writer who started her first book when she was just 14 years old. By now she has published 12 books which critics and readers have praised. Besides Estonia, she has lived in Germany, Austria, New Zealand, and USA. Right now she lives in Estonia with her family and continues to write as much as possible.

Ene Sepp on Eesti kirjanik, kes alustas esimese raamatu kirjutamist vaid 14aastaselt. Praeguseks on tema sulest ilmunud 12 raamatut, mis on pälvinud kiidusõnu nii lugejatelt kui ka kriitikutelt. Lisaks Eestile on ta elanud ka Saksamaal, Austrias, Uus-Meremaal ja USAs. Hetkel elab ta koos perega Eestis ning jätkab kirjutamisega nii palju kui võimalik.

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Monika Feth

Ich wurde 1951 in Hagen in Westfalen geboren, einer Stadt zwischen Ruhrgebiet und Sauerland. Mit neunzehn bin ich nach Bonn gezogen und habe dort Germanistik und Anglistik studiert.

Bücher waren schon immer meine Leidenschaft, aber ich stamme aus einer Arbeiterfamilie (mein Vater war der erste, der an einem Schreibtisch arbeitete), in der Lesen als Luxus für reiche Leute galt. Deshalb habe ich mir Studienfächer ausgesucht, für die ich den ganzen Tag lesen, lesen und lesen durfte, ohne dass mich jemand fragte, ob ich nichts Vernünftiges zu tun hätte ...
Nach dem Studium habe ich mein erstes Buch geschrieben, ohne jemals zuvor auch nur eine einzige Zeile verfasst zu haben. Dass es tatsächlich gedruckt wurde und in einem großen Verlag erschien,

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Jenny O'Connell

Published chick-lit under the name Jennifer O'Connell.

I haven't been called Jenny in years (thankfully), but I thought it was fitting to publish my teen book under the name that still makes me think of high school.

My high school days may be long behind me, but I have a lot in common with Vanessa, the main character in PLAN B. Like Vanessa, I also went to a small private school. I was also mildly obsessed with college from fifth grade on, thanks to a book I read in which one of the characters went to Dartmouth. But unlike Vanessa, my brother wasn't a TV star. And he didn't drive me crazy. I actually still like him. As for creating a How To guide for guys, like Emily does in THE BOOK OF LUKE, I can't say that I know enough to write an entire

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Julietta Henderson

Julietta Henderson grew up in the rainforests of North Queensland, and developed her passion for the written word producing 'magazines' for school friends and neighbours with her sister. She has worked her way through jobs as diverse as bicycle tour guide in Tuscany, nanny in the Italian Alps and breakfast waitress in the wilds of Scotland. Like many Australians, her love affair with Europe began when she came to London and stayed for more than a decade.

Now a full-time writer, Julietta divides her life between Melbourne, the UK and wherever else she can find winter.

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Helen Vreeswijk

Helen Vreeswijk is geboren en getogen in Den Haag. Als kind hield ze er van om in bomen te klimmen en te voetballen met de jongens.
Tijdens haar schooltijd had ze het soms moeilijk omwille van haar dyslexie. Ze moesten vaak saaie boekjes lezen. Helen begon dan maar met het schrijven van haar eigen verhalen.
Ze wilde graag schrijfster of politieagente worden als ze groot was.
Ze ging dan ook bij de politie werken als vingerafdrukdeskundige (dactyloscopist). Al snel werd haar hulp ingeroepen bij het schrijven van de kinderpagina van het personeelsblad en dat werd een groot succes. Ze volgde een cursus kinder- en jeugdliteratuur en als eindopdracht moest ze een scriptie schrijven. Dat werd haar debuutroman.
Ze kwam regelmatig in contact met da

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Jenny Downham

Total similar authors (38)