Tarcutta Wake - Softcover

"Josephine Rowe . . . writes clear, polished prose. Her tales are all succinct . . . we get glimpses, the corners of other people's lives." --"Sunday Age"

Josephine Rowe . . . writes clear, polished prose. Her tales are all succinct . . . we get glimpses, the corners of other people s lives. "Sunday Age""

In short vignettes and longer stories, Josephine Rowe explores the idea of things that are left behind: souvenirs, scars, prejudice. These beautifully wrought, bittersweet stories capture everyday life in restrained poetic prose, merging themes of collective memory and guilt, permanence and impermanence, and inherited beliefs. A mother moves north with her young children who watch her and try to decipher her buried grief. Two photographers document a nation’s guilt in pictures of its people’s hands. An underground club in Western Australia plays jazz to nostalgic patrons dreaming of America’s Deep South. A young woman struggles to define herself among the litter of objects an ex-lover has left behind.