A generation of Australian schoolchildren knows Peter Skrzynecki’s poetry. The simple, direct language of Immigrant Chronicle (1975) speaks of both the desolation and optimism of the postwar migrant. Boys of Summer, Skrzynecki’s third venture into book-length fiction, treads similar thematic terrain.

The Krupas are Polish Catholics displaced by the war. By the 1950s they have settled in an outer suburb of Sydney, grateful to live in a peaceful country, content with their outer suburban home and menial jobs, but ambitious enough for their only child, Tom. An ordinary boy, Tom gets into mischief, but doesn’t trouble his parents much. He has a group of friends who attend the same Catholic primary school. Together they climb trees and frighten the local birds with their shanghais. They are not all as lucky as Tom. Barry is crippled by polio and his father drinks too much, but his sister fascinates Tom with her Hollywood good looks and come-hither manner.