AustLit

Four old friends, now in their late thirties, meet for a school reunion, where the nostalgic environment forces them to admit that the schooling that prepared them for 'real life' also made it impossible for them to share their deepest emotions with those closest to them.

The Fisherman's Wake is a deeply personal account of a man's ambivalent relationship with his father, as seen in the context of his own childhood and his new role as a parent. The son returns to his childhood home to bury the man who taught him not only about courage and love but also to hate and experience fear.

The captain of rugby-union team the Dirty Reds grapples with defeat as his son watches on. Despite new training methods from motivation camps to yoga, the club has posted ninety-seven consecutive losses. For a man supposedly in charge, does losing mean emasculation, or can there be leadership where it seems there may never be victories? What makes and unmakes a hero? How and why do ordinary men seek dignity and power through team sport?

Following the death of his mother, Tom, a fourteen-year-old Chinese boy, returns to school. Seeking normalcy, he is disturbed by recurring dreams of his mother. Ultimately, he is forced to deal with his denial of both anger and grief. The story explores the complex relationship between a boy and his mother. It is about the resentment he feels towards his mother's dependency and the longing he feels for his mother's protective embrace.

Leonard sublets his house to Phil and Jessica, a young couple who spend most nights surrendering to the abandonment of love-making. Leonard and Phil are seemingly unalike, but each has a deep need to dominate and control their relationships with women. When Jessica becomes pregnant and Leonard meets a woman with an unknown past, both men find themselves wanting to exert their power in a way that is no longer appropriate.

Hughie, a writer in his late forties, is married with three children and living in the country. Through an uncontrollable desire to step outside himself, to recapture the naturalness of feeling of his childhood, and to seek renewal, Hughie leaves his family for the outback. What began as a tentative adventure has the power to change him in ways that are unforeseen, profound, and ultimately irrevocable.