Karen Viggers

Karen Viggers is an Australian novelist and veterinarian. Born in Melbourne and raised in the Dandenong Ranges, she read veterinary science at the University of Melbourne, worked seven years in mixed practice, and took a PhD in wildlife health at the Australian National University. She still works part-time as a vet and supports biologists studying native animals. Her novels — The Stranding (2008), The Lightkeeper's Wife (2011), The Grass Castle (2014), The Orchardist's Daughter (2019) and Sidelines (2024) — are set in the Australian landscape and have found a particularly large readership in France, where The Lightkeeper's Wife won the Prix Les Petits Mots des libraires in 2016. She lives in Canberra.