El Dorado
by Dorothy Porter
Of her latest work, Porter says: “There have been plenty of memorable serial killers in poetry, including Macbeth, Medea and Sweeney Todd. I’ve made mine a child serial killer – not the usual violently perverted pedophile, but a gentle and caring killer. My killer cherishes childhood innocence and does not defile the victims. I also wanted to write about friendship. In the shallow, hollow modern world, friendships have become the most enduring and stable relationships many of us have. We are philosophical about the transience of romance, even marriage, but devastated if we lose our friends.
“At the heart of El Dorado is an unusual friendship between a man and a woman, who have known and loved each other since hildhood. Bill is a homicide detective while Cath works in Hollywood. I wanted to play out and test this old friendship against the backdrop of a gruelling murder investigation. El Dorado, as the title suggests, is finally about fantasy worlds, ones that enmesh adults as well as children.

You are invited to the launch of El Dorado

Hares & Hyenas, Fitzroy, is pleased to announce the Melbourne launch of Dorothy Porter’s latest verse novel, El Dorado. An unflinching and morally uncompromising story of a serial child killer stalking the streets of Melbourne, Porter’s latest addition to the Australian literary canon has been described as her finest work to
date. Dorothy Porter, ever a maverick, characteristically turns the story on its head, painting a portrait of her killer as a cherisher of children, gently extinguishing his victims’ lives and placing a gold mark on their heads, entombing them forever in childhood. El Dorado will be launched at Hares & Hyenas by well known comedian and raconteur, Sue Ann Post.

Thursday 10th May 7:00