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A Couple Of Things Before The End: StoriesStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionThis brilliant collection mixes the storytelling originality of George Saunders and Lydia Davis with a sensibility all its own, taking the reader on an extraordinary tour of old and new Australia - and into a very frightening future. A woman on a passenger ship in 1958 gets involved with a young, wild Barry Humphries. A man looks back to the 1970s, and his time as a member of Australia's least competent scout troop. In 1988, a teenage boy recalls his sexual initiation, out on the tanbark. In 2015, two sisters text in Kmart about how to manage their irascible, isolated mum. Then, in the near future, a racist demagogue - a kind of Australian Trump - talks to the press the day after his electoral triumph. And as the cities heat up and lose their water, a lady from one of the 'better suburbs' makes every effort to get her family into a gated community. This is Australia, in all its glories and its foibles - and its insularity and fear. These stories are a reflection of where we are now, and where we may be headed. Bitingly satirical, outstandingly original and written in a remarkable range of voices, A Couple of Things Before the End is a stand-out fiction debut of 2020. AwardsShortlisted NSW Premier's Literary UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing 2021 Shortlisted for the QLD Premier’s Steel Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection 2021 |