‘As I’m tired of the predictable, I’ve experimented.’
The central character in these nineteen short stories is ‘the boy’. And each boy in each story is in a world that he cannot comprehend. Some of these stories are tragic, others are disturbing. Each of them made me stop to think about what was happening, about whether disaster (or tragedy) could be avoided (and how). From the tragedy in ‘Mrs Meiners has gone to get chalk’ to the stream of consciousness thought of the African youth stowaway in a Dreamliner’s wheel well in ‘The muddy sunshine’ and the heartbreaking ‘Incident near Hoxtolgay Town’, I was drawn into each story. The stories are set in different times and places: some in World War II Germany, others in Australia, some are contemporary.
Mr Orr takes the reader into some uncomfortable, confronting places. His stories involve death and dementia, mental illness, and mass shootings. In a few pages, Mr Orr creates a scene, takes the reader within it, enabling them to think about what is happening (and wonder why).
Another story which will stay with me is ‘The death of Tomas Kirja’: a story which reaches a logical (but uncomfortable) conclusion.
‘It was inevitable, I guess.’
A superb collection of thought-provoking short stories from a terrific Australian author. Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Tasmanian Bibliophile @Large 
I love his writing. His novels best of all, of course, but everything he writes makes me think.
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