Podcast Summary: A Podcast of One's Own with Julia Gillard

Episode: Julia's Book Club – Highway 13

Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Julia Gillard
Co-host: Sarah Holland Batt
Featured Book: Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane

Overview of the Episode

In this installment of Julia Gillard’s monthly book club, Julia and poet/critic Sarah Holland Batt delve into Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane—an innovative collection of interconnected short stories orbiting the dark gravitational pull of a serial killer in the Australian bush. The conversation explores crime fiction from a feminist, reflective angle, with both hosts assessing how the book eschews the usual tropes of the genre to look instead at the “ripples” of trauma and fascination left in the wake of violence. The discussion covers the format, themes, style, and memorable stories from the book, as well as the ethics and culture of true crime obsession.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Book Context and Structure

[02:28] Julia Gillard introduces Highway 13 as a marked departure from McFarlane’s previous work (The Sun Walks Down), highlighting:

• The new format: “12 different essays on, all quite short, all with different characters, but they are all around and connected to the story of a serial killer… picking up travellers… and murdering them in a stretch of forest.”
• The inspiration from real life: Paul Bega, the fictional killer, is reminiscent of real-life serial murderer Ivan Milat.

[05:10] Sarah Holland appreciates the format, noting:

• The chorus of perspectives, circling around the crime with “neighbours, relatives, people who’ve come into contact with the victims, and people who are just outside of it entirely.”

Meta-Commentary on True Crime

• Sarah self-identifies as a “mad true crime aficionado” [05:10], and unpacks the complicated feelings surrounding the genre's popularity among women:

  “It’s kind of gratuitous and a little bit weird and I think very, very popular among women … we hope to insulate ourselves from ever, you know, suffering such a fate.”

• Julia calls out the story centered on a true crime podcast as “the funniest one,” lauding the book’s sly humor despite grim subject matter [08:17].

The Shift from Killer to Community

• Julia discusses MacFarlane’s deliberate avoidance of focusing on the killer, referencing the author’s use of an epigraph from Richard II:

  “Each substance of grief hath 20 shadows,”
  and: “She’s not interested in the rock, she’s interested in the ripples.” [08:17]

• Both agree that the suspense persists—not from whodunit tension, but from wondering how each character’s life intersects with the crime:

  “The central tension in most of them is how does this person connect? … You have this terrible sense of premonition or foreshadowing of some horror yet to unfold.”
  — Sarah Holland, [12:48]

Interconnected Storytelling and Literary Trends

• Sarah discusses stand-alone versus interconnected short stories:

  “More often than not people who write short stories like to treat them as standalones… I think Fiona MacFarlane struck a good balance here… You can pick this up, read one story, leave it for six months, pick up another and find the stories themselves are beautifully engrossing.” [15:07–17:09]

Favorite Stories and Standout Moments

• Hostess:
  Sarah’s favorite. “It’s a very sort of slow burn of a story… a magnificently deep, for a short story, portrait of this woman who’s kind of charismatic … also just this sort of magnetizing spirit… She has a familial connection somehow to the serial killer… a novelistic level of characterization for me in about 20 or 30 pages.” [17:16]
• Democracy Sausage:
  Julia’s pick. “A political candidate… the desperate inner monologue… unfortunately he’s got the same name as the serial killer… once again, for a short story, very layered and taking you very deep very quickly.” [19:09]
• The Neighbor:
  Both host and guest discuss the story of the former school principal whose memories of the killer’s childhood home contrast with the public’s urge to erase it:

  “Where does that leave the collective memory of people who have lived in that house beforehand, who love the neighbourhood?” — Sarah Holland, [23:03]

Themes: Place, Memory & Evil

• Julia examines the book’s fictive Australian landscapes:

  “For an Aussie reader, I like finding those connections to the Australian landscape… But it’s a fictionalised forest.” [19:09]

• On the theme of evil and hindsight:

  “People don’t come with E for evil stamped on their forehead. They can just be very, very ordinary.” — Julia Gillard, [25:09] “We like to believe that we’re good judges of character. We like to believe that we would know. And yet, whenever these things happen, the first thing people say is, ‘Oh my God, I just had no idea.’” — Sarah Holland, [28:10]

• Julia also raises the phenomenon of “crime tourism” and the uncomfortable reality of true crime podcasters interfering in active investigations [25:09].

Humorous and Relatable Asides

• The hosts’ banter about moving apartments and book culling connects to the book-and-reader theme (03:00).
• Julia gives a humorous shout-out to her friend Emma, another “true crime aficionado” [08:17].
• Sarah’s anecdote about neighbours gawking at the JonBenet Ramsey house in Colorado draws a parallel to the book’s discussion of places tainted by infamy [23:03].
• Lighthearted joking about reporting one’s spouse to the police due to resemblance to serial killer sketches adds levity:

  “How do you go back to your family … if you’ve reported them?” — Sarah [29:49]
  “Oops. That would be after they come back from several hours of questioning at the police station. Very, very difficult conversation.” — Julia [30:04]

Who Should Read Highway 13?

Sarah’s recommendations [30:21]:

• “People who like true crime or who are interested in true crime… also a really great, original, kind of feminist sort of reconsideration of [the detective novel].”
• Good for those who are “time poor and just want little slices of life.”
• Lovers of fine writing: “Sentence for sentence, this is an extraordinary book.”

Julia adds [31:10]:

• "If you want to learn a bit about Australia—place, people, our sense of ourselves—I think this book takes you in all of those directions as well."
• Also humorously recommends Sarah Holland’s own poetry as a perfect time-poor literary alternative.

Notable Quotes

• On the book’s structure and tension:

  “You have this terrible sense of premonition or foreshadowing of some horror yet to unfold because you’re just reading it thinking, is this person going to be a victim? Or how does this connect?”
  — Sarah Holland, [12:48]

• On the shift away from sensationalizing the killer:

  “She’s not interested in the rock, she’s interested in the ripples. And I did like how expansive the ripples were.”
  — Julia Gillard, [08:17]

• On the ‘Democracy Sausage’ story:

  “All in one flowing sentence of the thoughts in his head whirling at a million miles an hour because it’s election day and it’s not going well for him.”
  — Julia Gillard, [20:17]

• On the question of evil:

  “Should you have seen it? Why didn’t you sense it? You’re left with that uncomfortable conclusion—people don’t come with ‘E’ for evil stamped on their forehead.”
  — Julia Gillard, [25:09]

• On why women are drawn to true crime:

  “In some way we hope to insulate ourselves from ever, you know, suffering such a fate.”
  — Sarah Holland, [05:10]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:28] – Julia summarizes Highway 13 and contextualizes it within McFarlane’s oeuvre.
• [05:10] – Sarah explores the ethics and popularity of true crime, especially among women.
• [08:17] – Julia explains MacFarlane’s focus on the “ripples” of crime, versus the criminal.
• [12:48] – Sarah describes the book’s tension and technique of interconnected stories.
• [17:16] – Both hosts share their favorite stories and discuss standout characterizations and structure.
• [23:03] – Discussion on the meaning of place and memory in both the book and real life.
• [25:09] – Julia and Sarah analyze the theme of evil—the impossibility of foreseeing it, and the haunting questions it raises.
• [30:21] – Recommendations for readers.
• [31:10] – Julia suggests the book for anyone interested in Australia or in finely written, pace-flexible stories.

Conclusion

Julia Gillard and Sarah Holland Batt offer a rich, layered conversation about Highway 13, analyzing its unique approach to crime fiction, its feminist undertones, atmosphere, and the nuanced way it interrogates trauma and community memory. The discussion is lively, humorous, and highly insightful, making it a primer not only on McFarlane’s book but on the changing landscape of literary crime fiction.