The stories chosen chart the emotions and the experiences of human beings living at particular times and in particular places. Collected as the landmark of a new millennium approached, the stories represent an interest at that time in past and future.
'Haunted by the brutal murder of a local couple, David heads to his weekend shack with his new lover, Lydia, and his children from his recently crumbled marriage. Together they find escape, if only briefly, in the ocean and the bush.
'"The Bodysurfers", the title story of Robert Drewe's classic first collection, is a vivid evocation of love, passion, terror and the beauty of the beach.' (From the publisher's website, 2012 Penguin publication.)
In "Market Day" a blind woman discovers accidentally that she is now grey and old, but this woman transcends her tragic past and self-interest to serve the cause of her niece's love. This little brown Aunt who has patiently endured physical and emotional suffering is almost deified because of her capacity to love a world she cannot see. She accommodates the loss of her own youth, and by the end of the story her hair is no longer the focus of her despair but, appropriately, has the appearance of a bronze crown. This narrative is also interesting in that Farmer recreates the particular textures and sounds of Elpida's environment as the reader shares the blind woman's dependence upon aural or mnemonic experience.
(Source: 'Against the Grain: Beverley Farmer's Writing')
