Cirrus@Austlit

'In this award-winning selection of his short fiction, essays and journalism from the last decade, Robert Dessaix offers insights into the many selves at play behind the mask of well-known broadcaster and author of "Night Letters". Traveller, thinker, linguist, and self-confessed dilettante, Dessaix muses in these pieces on an astonishing array of subjects from Orientalism to Aboriginal spirituality, from the art of translation to the nature of creativity, from covetousness to gay fiction, from Albanian tourism to adoption and the suburban family.Underlying these finely nuanced conversations with the reader is a passion for language and for finding ways to write with simplicity about intricate yet vital things–intimacy, mortality, time, love.

'"(and so forth)" was a bestseller when first published in hardback in 1998, and won the Colin Roderick Award for 1999 for the best Australian book of 1998. This paperback edition includes the 8-page colour section.'(Publication summary) 

'The unique collection explores the sea change in Australian life today. Two years before the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games the nation is witness to transformations of all types, whether they are radical, magical, sexual or political. In this especially-commissioned anthology, twenty-five of Australia's finest writers and photographers take up the challenge of exploring that theme, including David Malouf, Lily brett, Robert Drewe, Beth Yahp, Robert Dessaix, Tracey Moffatt, Anne Zhalka and William Yang.

This unusual anthology conterpoints essays and photographic images, short stories and the cartoons of Matthew Martin to challenge, surprise and entertain.' (Source: Back cover)