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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Nine connected stories, ' Things We Didn't See Coming follows a man over three decades as he tries to survive - and to retain his humanity - in a world savaged by successive cataclysmic events.
Opening on the eve of the millennium, when the world as we know it is still recognisable, we meet the then nine-year-old narrator fleeing the city with his parents, just ahead of a Y2K breakdown of the grid which signals the world's transformation and decline. In the wake of this develop strange, sometimes horrific, sometimes unexpectedly funny circumstances as he goes about the no longer simple act of survival: trying to protect squatters against floods in a place where the rains never stop; harassed (and possibly infected) by a man wracked with plague; functioning as a salaried embezzler of 'the state'; escorting the gravely ill on adventure trips.
Yet despite the violence and brutality of these days, we learn that even as the world is spinning out of control essential human impulses still hold sway - that we never entirely escape our parents, envy the success of those around us and, chiefly, that we crave love' (Harvill Secker website).
Contents
- What We Know Now, single work short story
- The Theft That Got Me Here, single work short story
-
Dry Land,
extract
novel
The rain won’t stop falling. Suburbs are being flooded and washed away. A government representative travels to sinking areas to encourage people to leave before it’s too late.
- Cakewalk, single work short story
- Uses for Vinegar, single work short story
- The Forest for the Trees, single work short story
- Predisposed, single work short story
- The Profit Motive, single work short story
- Best Medicine, single work short story
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Rural Apocalypses and Outback Ends-of-the-World
2022
single work
essay
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 154 2022; -
Short Stories... But Linked : Steven Amsterdam's Things We Didn't See Coming
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021; -
Reading I Didn't See Coming : How eReaders Change Everything
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , October no. 7 2011; (p. 30-37) -
Short Stories
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Library Journal , 15 January vol. 135 no. 1 2010; (p. 97)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story -
New Books : Steven K. Amsterdam
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Harper's Magazine , February 2010; (p. 67-68)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story
-
Subterranean Echoes
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , March vol. 4 no. 2 2009; (p. 22)
— Review of The Book of Emmett 2009 single work novel ; The Virtuoso 2009 single work novel ; Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story -
Light Edge on a Dark Road
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 April 2009; (p. 13)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story -
[Untitled]
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , April no. 44 2009; (p. 72)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story -
Untitled
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 310 2009; (p. 63)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story -
Beware the Apocalypse and Those Dodgy Estate Agents
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-12 April 2009; (p. 28-29)
— Review of Things We Didn't See Coming 2009 selected work short story ; Sold 2009 single work novel -
Things Worth Celebrating
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 August 2009; (p. 25) -
Apocalyptic Novel Wins Book of the Year
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 August 2009; (p. 4) -
Relax, It May Never Happen. But Then Again, It Probably Will
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 29 September 2009; (p. 20) -
New Territories : Sophie Cunningham Talks to Steven Amsterdam
Sophie Cunningham
(interviewer),
2010
single work
interview
— Appears in: Meanjin , March vol. 69 no. 1 2010; (p. 150-159) -
Stories from the Inner Strange
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 April 2010; (p. 13)
Awards
- 2010 shortlisted Australian Book Review Fan Poll
- 2010 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- 2010 longlisted Guardian First Book Award
- 2009 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
- 2009 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Fiction Prize