Cassie McCullough

It's so rich, that book, and so important.

And it's interesting for me that as I grow older as well, I identify with different characters more.

When I first read the book and Scout was my

main nexus point, my connector.

But as I get older, I feel much more closely aligned with Atticus, for example.

But that book has had an enormous impact on me, not just in terms of how I approach writing, but how I want to live and what kind of man I want to be.

It's as close to a perfect novel, I think, as has ever been written.

I love it very dearly.

That's right.

Well, Southern Gothic just made a lot of sense in an Australian context.

It just seemed to fit.

You know, Maycomb County is a long way away from dwelling up Western Australia, but there are so many elements to that small town.

and the politics of that small town that just made so much sense to me and it just felt readily identifiable.

And so it made a lot of sense to me to want to work on my own piece of Australian Gothic fiction.

And so obviously I owe a great debt to Harper Lee and that novel.

Well, I'm not sure if you would describe it as an obscure choice, but as we move closer to maybe a novel that has meant a lot to me over the last couple of years and certainly allowed me to embark on a book like Honeybee and believe in it, it may be an obscure choice for a lot of listeners, but I urge everyone to read this book.

It's so beautiful.

It's a book called Lean on Pete by a guy called Willie Flaughton who's also a musician.

Yes.

He plays in a band called Richmond Fontaine and also the D-Lines.