Gaylene Perry

To varying degrees, both of these second novels by Brisbane authors conjure southern Queensland as completely different from any other place in Australia. It is disconcerting but also beguiling. Disorientation and displacement are strong themes in both novels. In very different ways, they explore the lives of characters who have been lost, abandoned or orphaned at some time. Now each of these adults is discovering that their pasts are washing up as fast and surely as the flooding Brisbane River, which is omnipresent in Manfred Jurgensen’s The Eyes of the Tiger.

Of these three début novels, John Honey’s Paint is by far the richest: the only one that has the feel of a world turning as its pages ever more rapidly must be turned. Honey has created characters that matter to the reader and offers a truly immersive reading experience.