AustLit

'From the winner of the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. David Cohen's most wryly humorous and disturbing work of fiction yet.

'A public memorial’s name is changed to avoid any mention of the tragedy it has been set up to commemorate. Two attention-seeking activists campaign against exclusionary policies adopted by the gift shop at a suburban shopping mall. A customer service representative becomes obsessed with a colleague who has worked from home for so long, nobody in the company remembers her. A middle-aged father loses his marriage and falls in love again with a cherished but damaged childhood toy. An academic’s research into roadside memorials takes a peculiar turn.

'David Cohen’s sometimes bizarre yet pitch-perfect stories capture everyday horrors but are always shot through with a profound empathy and generosity.

'The Terrible Event delivers not just one terrible event, but many events of varying degrees of terrible-ness. Death, destruction, disappearance, decline, defeat – it has something for everyone.'

'A property developer fears that a burgeoning ibis population will prevent the construction of a high rise apartment complex; a bus stop outside a dementia care facility in Düsseldorf suffers its own identity crisis; a young man’s new job requires him to pose as a woodcutter and wave at a trainload of tourists; an aging, reclusive archivist becomes locked in a strange battle of wills with a courier; a backpacker in Israel has a bizarre religious experience.

'In these award-winning stories, David Cohen explores the oddities of human behaviour with wit, affection and startling brilliance.'  (Publication summary)

'Hideaway Self Storage, located just off Brisbane’s M1, is in decline. But manager Ken Guy and his assistant Bruce carry on with their daily rituals even as the facility falls apart around them. Lately, however, certain tenants have been disappearing off the face of the earth, leaving behind units full of valuable items. Ken has no idea where these rent defaulters have gone but he thinks he might be able to turn their abandoned 'things' into a nice little earner that could help save his business. But the disappearances are accompanied by strange occurrences such as Bruce's inexplicable late-night excursions, Ken's intensifying aversion to fluorescent lights, and Ken's girlfriend's intensifying aversion to Ken. While further along the motorway, construction of a rival facility – Pharoah's Tomb Self Storage, part of a nationwide franchise – hints at a mysterious past and a precarious future.

'A surprisingly funny study of physical and mental deterioration, David Cohen's second novel is never quite what it seems. Sharply attuned to the absurdities of contemporary urban life, it is that rare literary beast, a comic drama that is at once intelligent and suspenseful, humorous and deep.' (Publication summary)

'Although, or perhaps because, Gant didn't satisfy certain key diagnostic criteria, his case remains noteworthy. Those familiar with the Jerusalem Syndrome will know its defining symptom: the sufferer is convinced that he or she is in the Holy City to fulfil some religious or spiritual mission and, in many cases, believes him- or herself to be a biblical character. But Gant's delusions were not religious in nature. Having treated the Jerusalem Syndrome for some twenty years, I found this anomaly both curious and, at first, extremely refreshing. After all, how often can one converse with Ezekiel or the Virgin Mary without experiencing a certain weariness? How many times can one be warned that the Apocalypse is just around the corner without occasionally hoping that it really is? As for Messiahs, there are never less than three in the facility on any given day, and this figure tends to increase around Easter...' (Publication abstract)

The narrator's friend, Duncan, dreamed of being a pianist before he had both his hands amputated in a carpenting accident. Six months afterwards, the narrator is invited by Duncan to his house, where he reveals he has been learning to play the piano with his feet. The inspired narrator is determined to have Duncan play in public. After getting over his stage fright, Duncan succeeds and becomes a celebrity figure in their town, Des.

More and more disabled people come to the town, seeing him as an inspiration. The narrator realises they are no longer central to Duncan's career. The town begins to forbid entry to able-bodied musicians, which the narrator opposes to no avail. After the narrator leaves Des, a music academy for the disabled is built, and Des becomes a cultural hub for the disabled.