Cirrus@Austlit

'A stunning, thought-provoking novel about facing up to your family and your future, dealing with timely issues around sexual consent and inherited trauma. Joey is young, indifferent. He’s drifting around Western Sydney unaware of how his passivity might lead him even further adrift, off the rails, into a violent crime.

'Meanwhile his grandmother Elaine – a proud Lebanese woman – tries to hold her family and herself together in the wake of Joey’s actions. In her family, history repeats itself, vices come and go, and uncovering long-buried secrets isn’t always cathartic.

'This gripping and hard-hitting novel reveals the richness and complexity of contemporary Australian life and tests the idea that facing consequences will make us better people.' (Publication summary)