AustLit

'Amethysts and Emeralds is a selection of Daniel King's awardwinning poetry, much of which has been published in journals around the world. The poems embrace a wide variety of forms, from free verse to sonnet, roundel, villanelle, and sestina.' (Publication summary)

'Michael Cavanagh spent half his childhood fatherless and all of it with a mother who was a whore. No wonder insecurity is one of his problems. Or that sex is another. When Meredith Lomond's bicycle punctures outside his workshop, it becomes a catalyst for a metamorphosis in Michael's life that will take him on a journey he could never imagine. The consequences test Michael's mental, moral, and physical strengths to their limits.' (Synopsis)

'Set in times ranging from the mediaeval to present day and in places as far apart as Australia, Europe and North America, these eighteen short stories reveal life in its bewildering, sometimes funny, and at times achingly sad moments. All is witnessed through the eyes of diverse, often flawed characters: a professional cyclist who must choose between his wife and his career, a cellist performing in the streets of a war-torn city as mortars explode around him, a boy hiding behind fantasy to compensate for an absent father, a yachtsman fighting both his conscience and a storm on Port Phillip Bay.' (Publication summary)