Text classics

Moving from Sydney to chilly London to study for the bar by correspondence, Clemency falls for failed actor Christian, a relationship that sheds light on the madness that can infect couples.

"New to The Yabba?" It was the inevitable question asked of a stranger to the Australian outback town of Bundanyabba. Then would follow round after round of drinks and a recital of The Yabba's virtues. You could rob your host, sleep with his wife or rape his daughters and Bundanyabba would welcome you. But refuse a drink or despise The Yabba and you were an outcast. John Grant came from Sydney. He was serving his mandatory time as a school-teacher in the outback. Bundanyabba was the essence of what he hated most about the region: its meaningless generosity and utter shallowness; its stifling hospitality and complete callousness; its scorching, relentless, horrible heat. And yet John, who was on his way to see his girl in Sydney, was stuck there — flat broke, dependent on these friendly. loathsome people. He gambled with them, drank with them, shot with them. He was trapped in a nightmare like the man cursed to dream of the Devil and wake in fright. Afterwards he realized it was enough to be it awake, to be alive. In spare, telling prose, Kenneth Cook creates a terrifying picture of the degradation to which men can sink and of the second chance given to one man to come back to life. Wake in Fright is a remarkable achievement in the genre of the taut novel of suspense.

Harry Baird lives with his mother, father and younger brother Cal in Calliope Bay, at the edge of the world. Summer has come, and those who can have left the bay for the allure of the far away city. Among them is Harry's mother, who has left behind a case of homemade ginger beer and a vague promise of return.