'Charlie Lansdowne's life is going nowhere ... fast.

'Trapped at home with his eccentric father, Roger, and his stroke-affected grandfather, Frank, he finds life a daily exercise in dysfunction as three generations of men strive to get along.

'But when Charlie meets the volatile and tempestuous Maxine – a surfer girl who works at the local abattoir – his life goes supernova. Friendships implode, passions ignite and death comes stalking in the night.

'‘His fingers caress me, seeking out the secret constellations of my skin, where ridges of goosebumps become messages of love in Braille. Orion the Hunter, Andromeda, Dorado and the Southern Cross are patterns he traces to skin: thigh, back, stomach and cheek. And the universe inside me, once dormant, is expanding with each new sensation.’

Pulling Down the Stars is a story about the confusion of love, the longing for reconciliation and the need to pull our unrealistic dreams back down to earth.

' ‘People think humility is a weakness. But I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s the most muscular virtue we’ve got.’ (Publication summary)