Patrick Carey

Exactly.

It's a meditation on grief, this book.

It's

set around a group of friends who are living in Melbourne sometime in the mid-aughts.

One of their number early in the novel takes her own life and it then follows particularly the main character but the group in general, how they sort of fall apart and then

come back together as a result of this horrific grief.

It's a really beautiful book.

Talking about the plot doesn't really do it justice because it's so much about impressions of living in Melbourne, impressions of living in Sydney because the character moves to Sydney briefly in the middle.

It's just a wonderful read and I think a great insight into what the last 15 years have been like for young people in Australia in the city.

Thanks, guys.

And I'm Cassie McCullough.

Another week of amazing books, Kate.

Let's start by just acknowledging, though, the death of Australian writer Andrew McGahn, who died last week at the age of just 52.

Yeah, I remember it being called Dirty Realism, which I kind of liked as well.

what else of his did you like i really loved 1988 which was the prequel to praise but came out after it gordon the guy who works in a bottle shop in praise still works in a bottle shop and he's living in this crazy share house i i don't know i just particularly loved one of the very first things that happens in it he and his mate wayne decide they're going to take this job in the northern territory

And so they get in the car and they drive from Brisbane to Darwin.

But they're so stoned for the first part of the trip that they've driven halfway across Queensland before they realise they're still in second gear.

LAUGHTER

Let me blow out the gearbox of this car.

You have to break down and this truck driver stops to try and help them and realises what they've done and can't believe what idiots they are.