The Author
Robert Engwerda was born in Friesland, the northernmost province of the Netherlands, his family later migrating to Australia and settling in Northern Victoria. Following school and university, his occupations have included fruit picker, factory worker, clerk, secondary school teacher and educational publisher. He writes crime, historical and literary fiction.
His first novel, Backwaters, was longlisted for the prestigious Miles Franklin Award in 2005 and in 2007 he won a place in the Australian Society of Authors highly regarded mentorship program, working with Garry Disher as his mentor. Mosquito Creek was published by Penguin in 2010.
The popular Mitchell Mystery novels, a crime series set in and around a small country town during the 1960s, comprising of The Summertime Dead, Whistle Down The Wire, Guy Fawkes Night and In Darker Waters, have been published on Amazon.
After September 11, which appeared in 2021, explored the themes of family life and of recovery after trauma.
Robert has also published historical novels, Harvest set during the Great War, and more recently, The Devil's Frontier, a powerful story set in London and Australia during the first half of the 19th Century that follows the life and travels of Samuel Stack from his flight from England to the wilds of Australia.
His forthcoming novel, When The Wood Was Green, is a beautiful account of an older woman, Anna, on a road trip through Victoria as she reflects on her life, her loves and failures and the tragedy of her son, Terry.
Robert lives in Central Victoria, a historic gold-mining region in Australia.