`Winton is a poet of baffled souls . . . Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line after line of perfect music. His unbounded humanity and his sympathy for his characters descend on them like grace as they struggle to salvage their lives' The Times ... Read more`Winton is marvellous at locating the small moment of crisis. His prose is leavened throughout by a kind of poetry . . . so exquisitely written, so precise in its construction, that it is a joy to read' Sunday Telegraph `Vivid, elegiac and humorous . . . and told in a relaxed prose that frequently strikes sparks' Daily Telegraph `Sublime. Winton is a great writer' Daily Mail 'These stories are threaded through with subtleties and oblique connections; to be fully appreciated, they need to be read more than once. But Winton's writing - vigorous, vivid, precise - is so good that you'd want to do that anyway' Sunday Times `The laureate of Western Australia is back . . . this is like Carver, happily with a very large dose of Winton' Time Out `Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line after line of perfect music . . . To read Winton is to be reminded not just of the possibilities of fiction but of the human heart' The Times Show Less