AustLit

'During the long years of World War II, Australia's small farming communities paid a terrible price. In the rural towns of New South Wales, one family each week discovered that their son or husband or brother or father would not be coming home. In the throws of such grief, one seldom considers the man who delivers the news.

The Telegram Man takes us into the world of Bill Williams, the man who must deliver the worst kind of news and John Lewis the man who is destined to hear it. John Boyne's poetic short story American Farm '44 has been transported to the Australian outback allowing us to explore, through the micro-cosmos of Bill and John, how World War II forever changed the face of Australian culture.

The Telegram Man is a story that compels us to question our values, our fears and our compassion. It focuses on a time when we grew up as a nation, a time when we took responsibility and a time when we learnt the most painful lessons of loss whilst discovering and defining who we are.'

Source: http://www.thetelegramman.com (Sighted 28/05/2012).