This varied collection, written by a diplomat's son, takes us around the world. A novella, Oddfellows, tells the extraordinary story of the only enemy action on Australian soil during the first World War, an attack by two put-upon Muslim immigrants in the outback town of Broken Hill. It's a superbly told story, showing the tragic consequences that can follow from racism. In The White Hole of Bombay a woman shares a precious memory with the narrator, one she carried "around with her like a tall glass of gin filled right to the top not wanting to spill a drop". It is a sad memory, as is that shared in Freshwater Fishing. The Death of Marat rivals Oddfellows for the collection's best story. In parallel parts it tells how a modern white African woman is influenced by Munch's painting The Death of Marat to imitate Charlotte Corday, Marat's killer, to assassinate her country's black dictator (a thinly disguised Robert Mugabe).
