''He took up the book and opened the battered cover. It had swollen with age, humidity and use, the pages rippled together like seaweed in a current, like billowing grasses, as if the story it contained could not be bound by the glue and stitch of the spine...' Joel, a charming drifter, finds his moorings in the world of books. Attending a creative writing class, he strikes up an unlikely friendship which dredges up painful memories. Meanwhile his flatmate, a budding actress named Nomee, battles her own demons after being cast in a dream role. Will her fears, like those of her character, doom her to failure and regret? Creative Writing for Beginners is an absorbing novel exploring love, creativity and ego. Crafted with intelligence and poise, it also celebrates the redemptive power of fiction. ' (Publisher's blurb)
Epigraph: 'What will survive of us is love.' -Philip Larkin, An Arundel Tomb
'Art, to be sure, has its roots in the lives of human beings: the weakness, the strength, the absurdity.' -James Baldwin, The Cross of Redemption
