Ten stories of individuals caught between worlds, forced to make unpalatable choices to survive.
In the opening story, ‘Away’ (winner of the 40⁰ South Short Story Award), a young Hobart woman visiting Sydney for work, suddenly sees the life she walked away from and is dangerously tempted back. In ‘The Divine Image’ a passionate art collector must choose between a priceless sculpture and a human life. In ‘The Deal’ a loving husband must make a pact with the devil to keep his wife…
‘The tales’…shapes converge, with a satisfying precision, on the agony of the instant. Swinbourne’ s fiction provokes and entertains, teases and disturbs, with admirable, and unpretentious vitality.’
– The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.