The Butterfly Man

Can a dying man maintain his deception when his mind begins to fail him? The award-winning novel from the bestselling author of Bruny.

Winner of the 2006 Davitt Award for Best Crime Novel

On 7 November 1974, a young English nanny named Sandra Rivett was killed in London's West End. Her employer, Lord Lucan, was accused of her murder. It was widely assumed he had mistaken her for his wife. Lord Lucan disappeared the night Sandra Rivett died and has never been seen since.

Henry Kennedy lives on a mountain on the other side of the world. He is not who he says he is. Is he a murderer or a man who can never clear his name? And is he the only one with something to hide?

Set in Tasmania, Africa and London's Belgravia, The Butterfly Man is a novel about transformation and deception, and the lengths to which we will go to protect the ones we love.

'The success of this exquisitely crafted novel is that it is difficult to remind oneself that it is a work of imagination.' The West Australian

'Rose's lyrical melding ... is masterful. Intriguing as the real-life events of the Lucan story are, Rose transforms it into something far more substantial.' The Weekend Australian

'Despite the brutal murder that lies at the heart of this impressive novel, the tone of The Butterfly Man is strangely gentle, almost meditative.' The Courier Mail

'This is a moving novel about a man's struggle to say goodbye to those who have come to love him for the lies he has told.' The Canberra Times

About the Author

Heather Rose is the Australian author of nine novels. Her most recent novel, Bruny, won the 2020 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for an Indie Book Award and Davitt Award. Her seventh novel, The Museum of Modern Love, won the 2017 Stella Prize. It also won the 2017 Christina Stead Prize and the 2017 Margaret Scott Prize. It has been published internationally and translated into numerous languages. Both The Museum of Modern Love and The Butterfly Man were longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. The Butterfly Man won the Davitt Award in 2006, and in 2007 The River Wife won the international Varuna Eleanor Dark Fellowship. Heather has also written for younger readers under the pen-name Angelica Banks with Danielle Woods. The series has been published internationally and shortlisted twice for the Aurealis Awards for best children's fantasy. The memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here was shortlisted for the nonfiction prize in the Indie Book Awards in 2022. Heather lives in Tasmania.