'In 2009 an embattled Nathan Rees warned that, should he not be NSW premier by the end of that day, his successor would be nothing but “a puppet of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi”. This marked a decisive moment in the disintegration and degeneration of NSW Labor.' (Introduction)
'I have heard it said that men are reluctant to become fathers because we haven’t yet finished being children ourselves. There’s quite a bit of truth to that, I suspect. But, then, how do any of us become men? Who teaches us? What are the rites of passage that lead us into manhood? These are the questions Brisbane writer Ben Hobson seems to be contemplating in his moving debut novel, To Become a Whale.' (Introduction)
