AustLit

'We first see our son sitting on the grass, reading near the Hyde Park fountain, the one with Apollo on top, Diana and Theseus and Aristaeus in the pool below. He arrived before us, so we approach him from a distance through the cathedral of fig trees.' (Author's abstract)

'Davey woke up to a racket. Someone was hammering on the door fit to knock the old place off its rotten stumps. He stumbled down the wooden stairs and caught sight of the clock on the kitchen wall: it was seven-thirty in the morning and hot as Nun's bakery already...' (Author's abstract)

'At the height of the craze for Liam Couch, buses edged down our street three or four times a day as tourists sat in the open upper deck listening to a commentary. We could hear every word of it, over and over. The bus stopped outside Couch's concrete mansion and the guide told everyone to look closely at the wrought-iron front gates. There was a prize for the first person to notice something special. Eyes came slowly out from hiding behind cameras. Eventually somebody, usually a kid, noticed that one of the gates wasn't properly hung. It rested on the ground and was held in place by barbed-wire...' (Author's abstract)