Stephen Ramay

One is full and then only half full.

Without emptiness, the glass could not exist.

If you should speak, Tina, the glass would shatter.

My three favourite Australian fictions this year were one by J.M.

Curtsier.

Now, I'm going to say he's Australian because he's been living here for a very long time.

We'll claim him.

The Death of Jesus.

As I'm sure the listeners know, it's the culminating book in a three-part series.

The childhood of Jesus, the school days of Jesus, and the death of Jesus.

And they're all short, simple, but elegant books that have as their central character

a young boy.

In the final book, he's 10 years old.

And he is orphaned, more or less, and lives with adoptive parents who aren't together.

And they live in a kind of fictional part of the world, which is probably somewhere around Spain.

And it's jam-courtsier.

So what can you say about it, except you have no idea what's really going on.

And of course, I love that.

The word Jesus, I don't think is mentioned once in the three books, except on the title page.

It's a 10 year old boy.