Conspiracies

Synopsis

‘Family, marriage, violent sexuality and social dysfunction, these short stories are filled with lives of limit and the small corruptions of the soul. John Kinsella’s and Tracy Ryan’s narratives are savage renditions of self-discovery and closely-observed investigations into excess, transgression and the powerful conspiracies of the unendurable.’

Reviews of this Book

‘On Tracy Ryan’s Jazz Tango: “... an attractively moody and allusive piece of writing.”’ —The Canberra Times

‘On Hothouse: “Tracy Ryan writes pungent, slightly riddling meditations, which tend to cluster around the experience of belonging, or – more often – not belonging.”’ —The West Australian

‘Of Jazz Tango: “Tracy Ryan has not only a fantastic story-telling style but an amazing insight into the core of the human interior with all its fears and possibilities. She also understands social class ...”’ —Susan Holmes, Overland

‘On John Kinsella’s Grappling Eros: “... gritty, confrontational, and starkly erotic, sometimes almost pornographic stories, in which there are, too, pieces of real poetry and tenderness.”’ —David Brooks

‘On John Kinsella’s Grappling Eros: “Here ‘literature is not innocent’ and has no intention whatsoever of pleading so.”’ —Kathleen Mary Fallon