Cirrus@Austlit

' The man who wants to pay Aaron, an 18-year-old heroin addict, for sex, is known simply as “The Man”. He is closer to 70 than 60, has black hair, tailored suits and an expensive car. “Everything about him says money, real money and opportunity” – or so thinks the teen who accepts the deal, against the grain of every hope and want aside from his need for drugs and the glorious, temporary extinction they provide. ' (Introduction)   

'Lucy Treloar’s third novel begins with two small girls playing together in a fenced kindergarten. They crush flowers into perfume and promise always to love each other. A man appears at the fence and, when he leaves, he takes one of the girls. The “outside-the-fence” girl turns and waves to the girl who remains, then skips ahead “into darkness”.' (Introduction)