Tide

These gritty and lyrical stories sting with life and sing with truth. Robert Drewe The coast and dreams of being by the water are never far away in Kinsella s surprising stories of Australian small town life. They summon in us both longing and fear at the recollection of our own childhoods, families, friends and upbringings. Flight is a possibility. A boy builds a rocket from 44-gallon drums and packing cases, a lone farmer travels to London to glimpse the snow his late mother once spoke of, inseparable mates relocate to the inner city. But the elemental mystery of place, of the country, of the sea, invariably draws them back. Praise for John Kinsella Kinsella can see into the heart of the country, and the evidence of these taut, complex stories is that what he sees there is both ferocious and unresolved. Philip Mead, The Australian There is something of Lawson s fear and desolation ... highly satisfying and affecting. Tony Hughes-d Aeth, Southerly