WINNER - Best Fiction, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 'They kill us, they crucify us, they throw us to beasts in the arena, they sew our lips together and watch us starve. They bugger children in front of their mothers and violate men in front of their wives. The temple priests flay us openly in the streets. We are hunted everywhere and we are hunted by everyone ... We are despised, yet we grow. We are tortured and crucified and yet we flourish. We are hated and still we multiply. Why…