Rare and luminous talent...an outstanding collection

Contemporary Australia lives and breathes, shudders, groans and even scratches without a trace of inhibition throughout these seven vivid narratives from one of the finest of contemporary writers

Graceful and unsettling... Malouf's prose is invariably elegant

A master of the incisive, seamless, turns-on-a-sixpence short story...this collection is a jewel

Tender and luminous tales...It is his rich landscapes for which Malouf is most often praised and this collection contains some of the most evocative descriptions of the Australian continent

Contemplative, ethereal, sharply perceptive, this collection is a fascinating exploration of the inner worlds that separate and connect us all

Malouf, always so precise in his characterisation, so poetic in his evocations of nature and so haunting in his insight into loneliness and frustrated love, is a writer to treasure

At times unsettling in the intensity of their vision, Malouf's stories provide a deeply intelligent meditation on the unknowability of the self

Colours and landscapes are evoked in language that, at once lush and direct, is in itself a pleasure and a reminder that Malouf is also a poet of considerable talent

His writing here has a fine descriptive delicacy and sensory exactness that act as guarantees of the stories' truth and the authenticity of the experiences they embody

Malouf deals with both the vast and the seemingly unimportant... He does it with biting wit, elegance and a rare, uncluttered honesty

Poignant and wonderful story...concentrates, without effort, all Malouf's themes...it needs to be read