August 2022
$29.99
128pp, softback
204 x 130mm
ISBN: 978-1-98-850333-2
In these small stories, Frankie McMillan balances transgression and wit, showing a cast of unmoored characters with her signature warmth and compassion.
Bursts of vivid, poetic writing blur the line between reality and surrealism as she explores all kinds of wandering: children wander, adults drift into unexpected relationships, and footholds can never be certain. Water, too, meanders like a river in the collection, a powerful presence linking disparate lives: the girls raised by swans swim towards what they hope is a better future in the West, a grandmother swims naked in an isolated bush lake, Magdalene’s behaviour on the fishing boat is under scrutiny by her sisters, while the taniwha Kaiwhakaruaki looms over lovers hiding under a wooden dinghy on the beach.
