Cirrus@Austlit

'A Scottish businessman at the beginning of the 20th century. A magical, moving pub in 1990s Melbourne. Ships. Ghosts. A lot of talk about wood – not a metaphor, just wood. Hubris and other human fallibilities. I wanted to love Jock Serong’s Cherrywood – for the ambitiousness and reach of its plot, for its parallels with Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree series, for its consideration of colonialism and gentrification – but it left me cold.' (Introduction)