Evan Hanford’s debut is a masterclass in understated storytelling—equal parts satire, social commentary, and quiet redemption. For anyone who’s ever worked in care, loved someone into old age, or wondered what the hell happened to their twenties, this novel offers a mirror, a laugh, and a gentle nudge toward empathy.

Evan Hanford has, as a novelist ought to do, done many odd jobs. He’s worked as a dockhand, pizza delivery driver, court reporter, copywriter, bass player, member of an anarcho-filmmaker syndicate, tutor to non-English-speaking students and janitor; as a staff writer, editor, researcher and project wrangler for a consultancy supporting government communication and Australian public diplomacy.

His journalism has appeared in student papers at the Universities of Sydney and Canberra and the Australian National University; and in The Queanbeyan Age and The Canberra Times; and he will not waste this opportunity to thank The Australasian Bowling Journal for reprinting one of his Times articles. He recently collaborated on a non-fiction book, Shortcut to Freedom, a well-received guide to navigating the real estate business.

The Clearwater Retirement Village is his first novel.

Welcome to Clearwater—a fading coastal town where the local retirement village is barely holding it together, and the staff are just as lost as the residents. Amid crumbling infrastructure, bureaucratic indifference, and institutional chaos, one carer quietly navigates the absurdity of aged care with equal parts compassion and gallows humour. Between bingo nights, bedpans, and endoscopies, he finds unexpected wisdom in the war stories of a veteran, the mischief of a rebellious widow, and the sharp-tongued companionship of Rhonda, his enigmatic co-worker.

Told with deadpan wit and piercing humanity, The Clearwater Retirement Village is a tender, darkly funny portrait of life on the margins—where ageing meets apathy, and dignity is a daily struggle. In this world of malfunctioning call buttons and midnight escape attempts, the smallest acts of kindness take on epic meaning.

Evan will be joined in conversation on the night with renowned Canberra poet Geoff Page, and will also be performing a solo bass and drum machine set of original compositions designed as companion pieces to the Novel itself.