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The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan

Brief Description
A dazzling, bravura collection of stories from one of Australia's most admired multi-disciplinary artists. From the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2026. Can you sever a shadow? Can you outswim the rising tide? A monitor lizard in Borneo tries to convince a... Read More
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A dazzling, bravura collection of stories from one of Australia's most admired multi-disciplinary artists.

From the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2026.

Can you sever a shadow? Can you outswim the rising tide?

A monitor lizard in Borneo tries to convince a boy not to kill a mafia boss. An American scam artist and an aspiring K-pop star fall in loveβ€”without ever seeing each other's faces. After Islam is banned, a man uses a time machine to visit 'The Japanese Goebbels'. A suicidal Australian boxer is given one more chance at humanity.

The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan is an explosive collection of award-winning, surreal short stories. Characters across the globe confront the most human of strugglesβ€”grief, doubt, addiction, lost love and friendships that shape or betray them. From Bosnia to Borneo, the United States to Australia to Mars, these are stories where lizards talk, cars fly, and humans become birds, Sufi mysticism and AI technology collide. A world where nothing is ever what it appears to be.

The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan is a masterful story collection by one of Australia's finest writers. To read Omar Musa is to be stirred and shakenβ€”and loved.' Tony Birch

'Surreal, wry, and arresting stories from an inventive imagination at full stretch.' Cate Kennedy

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781761358135

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 July 2026

Country: Australia

Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 1.0mm

Width: 1.0mm

Height: 1.0mm

Weight: 1g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Omar Musa is an author, visual artist, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan, Australia. He has written two novels (including Fierceland), three books of poetry, five hip-hop records, and two plays, Since Ali Died and The Offering (A Plastic Ocean Oratorio), with cellist Mariel Roberts Musa. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Best Australian Stories and Best of Australian Poems. His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Young Novelists of the Year in 2015. Fierceland won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. He has had several solo exhibitions, including The Hurt Business.

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    The globe-spanning epic of power and family secrets from the Miles Franklin listed author. An impressive, urgent novel by a talented and courageous writer. - Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West How do you mourn your father when you know his secrets? After many years abroad, Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo for the funeral of their father Yusufβ€”and...
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  • Killernova
    A collection of poetry and wood cuts that burns blindingly bright. The island of Borneo was once the most heavily wooded in the world, and its people have always carved wood beautifully. In Killernova, grappling with his heritage, Omar Musa remixes this ancient art form with fiery poetry forged in the stars. With equal parts swagger, humour and vulnerability, Musa...
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  • Parang
    Parang is the second collection of poetry from former Australian Poetry Slam winner Omar Musa. Written over four years, the collection explores Malaysian jungles, dark Australian streets, and dreams. Dealing with the issues of loss, migration and belonging, Parang is an incisive and sometimes raw look at the here and now of a changing world. Parang is as brutal as...
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    'Omar Musa writes hard, beautiful poems about things that are true.' - Kate Tempest A collection of love poems and fierce raps, Millefiori is Omar Musa's third book of poetry. Both dream-like and gritty, it also includes gorgeous illustrations and draft poems from Musa's notebook. Heartbreak, cocaine, colonial violence, memory and cave paintingsβ€”this is a world full of unbearable beauty...
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