In the 2024 book, nominated for The Story Prize, English Professor Fiona McFarlane tells 12 short stories that look past a serial killer's crimes and focus on the lives of those still living.
Photo design by Neil Freese/UC Berkeley
In the novel Highway Thirteen, we learn about an Australian serial killer in bits and pieces. He kills hitchhikers and tourists, dumping their bodies in a state forest. He drives a taxi. His name is Paul Biga. He can be charming and affable, and shockingly ruthless. He’s the son of a Polish immigrant.
But we never actually meet him. We don’t see him killing anyone. Instead, we hear about the lives his violence has touched, and see the ripple effects of his menace and cruelty.
“In these stories, Biga is never the protagonist,” says Fiona McFarlane, author of the 2024 book and an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Minor at UC Berkeley. “He never has a chance to tell his own story.”