Cirrus@Austlit

'Twenty years ago, when I first arrived on the plains, I kept my eyes open. I looked for anything in the landscape that seemed to hint at some elaborate meaning behind appearances.

'There is no book in Australian literature like The Plains. In the two decades since its first publication, this haunting novel has earned its status as a classic. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, ‘a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself’.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

'Set in the Blue Mountains and in Sydney, Tom is Dead is a suspense novel about grief. The narrator's son has been dead for ten years; he was four and a half. For the first time since that day, she spends a few minutes without thinking of him. To stop herself from forgetting, she tries to write Tom's story, the story of his death.

'She writes about the first hours, the first days, and then about the hours and the days before. She strives to describe it all as precisely as possible. It's the details that will lead her and the reader to the truth.' (From Text Publishing's website.)