AustLit

'Reinhard Kleist’s graphic novel Mercy on Me is all slash and swagger, from the glowering, loping Nick Cave of the cover to the trailing words of Cave song Jubilee Street at the end ('can’t remember anything at all …').Kleist’s confabulation begins with a chubby-cheeked, pouty-mouthed teenage version of the Australian musician, composer, writer and actor. Playing on the train tracks in small-town Warracknabeal, Victoria, flirting with and skirting risk, Nicholas Edward Cave is a leaping, exultant boy with a cluster of flustered friends in his wake.' (Introduction)