Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe

(Paperback)

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Description

Bram and his fellow residents are drawn by a dream: the promise of a freeway leading to a new suburb north of the city. The houses are built, but the freeway never comes. One by one, the dreamers leave, until only a small, hardcore group is left - including Bram, One-eyed Michael, and Michael's self-possessed daughter Jodie. As the disused houses crumble around them they barricade themselves in. They have a gun, a bulldozer, and a hellbent determination to stay till the end, whatever, whenever, that is. But the authorities have other ideas. Blueprints for a Barbed-wire Canoe is a bitingly dark take on the great Australian dream. Fable-like, effortlessly readable and ultimately moving, it shows us in full measure the depth of Macauley's talent.

Reviews

'A salutary fable about the horrors awaiting our disaffected modern citizenry... lasting visual images and resonant symbolism.' - Sydney Morning Herald

Author Bio

Wayne Macauley is the author of the novel Caravan Story and the short-fiction collection Other Stories.