In these extraordinary tales about ordinary people from ordinary places, Tim Winton describes turnings of all kinds: second thoughts, changes of heart, nasty surprises, slow awakenings, abrupt transitions. The seventeen stories overlap to paint a convincing and cohesive picture of a world where people struggle against the terrible weight of their past and challenge the lives they have made for themselves. 'Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line after line of perfect music. . To read Winton is to be reminded not just of the possibilities of fiction but of the human heart' "The Times " 'The laureate of Western Australia is back. . this is like Carver, happily with a very large dose of Winton' "Time Out " 'These stories are threaded through with subtleties and oblique connections; to be fully appreciated, they need to be read more than once. But Winton's writing — vigorous, vivid, precise — is so good that you'd want to do that anyway' "Sunday Times"