DOVE
WOMEN: What would you do if you had a whole day on earth free of men?
Following the success of her award-winning debut, Georgia Harper returns with the vivid portrait of a community teetering on the edge until an electrifying question forces a social reckoning.
The idea for Georgia’s second novel was sparked by a viral moment on social media, when women around the world responded to the question ‘What would you do if there were no men for 24 hours?’
After reading through hundreds of simple yet heartbreaking responses, and in the wake of a troubling incident in her own life, Georgia felt compelled to explore the idea further.
Set in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in the early 1990s, Dove finds herself no longer able to stay silent after a violent interaction with her neighbour and writes a bold question across the front wall of her permaculture farm:
WOMEN: What would you do if you had a whole day on earth free of men?
Slowly, the local women start filling the wall with confessions, revealing deeply buried secrets and dreams. When the media descends and threats begin to appear among the statements, the community becomes increasingly unsettled. Secrets ripple outward and relationships strain under the weight of what has been revealed. When things begin to go wrong on Dove’s farm, everyone becomes a suspect and before long the simmering tension erupts with unforeseeable consequences. Murder.
Despite unfolding in 1993, Dove speaks directly to contemporary conversations about gendered violence, bodily autonomy and the intimate and institutional structures that shape women’s lives. At its heart, it asks what happens when one woman refuses to shrink herself and a small community is forced to confront the truths it has long ignored.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Georgia Harper is the author of What I Would Do to You, which won Best Debut Book at the 2025 Davitt Awards and was shortlisted for Best Crime Fiction Debut at the 2025 Danger Awards.
Georgia has worked as a psychologist with both serious violent offenders and victim survivors of crime. She was also the Senior Inspector Prosecutions for RSPCA Queensland. Georgia is an ambassador for the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival and for child literacy charity Chapters for Change.
She writes on Kabi Kabi land on the Sunshine Coast.
