Last Summer

Description

Rory Buchanan is a typical Aussie knockabout bloke: a born leader, a good sportsman, a devoted family man and an all-round good guy. He captains the second-grade cricket side at Regents Park Cricket Club and all his friends adore him. One day, however, Rory dies suddenly at a training session, and this tragic event creates enormous shockwaves and repercussions that irrevocably affect the lives of his team-mates and their wives and children. Told from the points of view of the nine people who are mourning Rory, this riveting novel presents a vivid snapshot of contemporary suburban Australia and how we live now. Marriage, friendship, family - all are dissected with great psychological insight as they start to unravel under the pressure of grief. The characters live on the page, their lives are unfolded and their dilemmas are as real as our own. Last Summer is a novel about loss - the terrible pain of losing a husband, brother or friend, but also all those smaller losses that everyone must face: the loss of youth, the shattering of dreams, the fading of convictions and the change in our notions of who we thought we were. It is also about what comes after the loss: how we pick up the pieces and the way we remake our lives. And about what we keep hidden from the ones we love - and ourselves - and how buried secrets never stay in the past.

About the author:
Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer. Her essays and articles have appeared in the Age, Griffith Review and O magazine, among others, and she is a regular contributor to the popular MamaMia website. Kylie's first novel, After the Fall, was published in Australia, the US and Turkey. Her previous books are Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity and Living with Alzheimer's and Other Dementias. She holds a PhD in neuropsychology and lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.

Author description

Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer. Her essays and articles have appeared in the Age, Griffith Review and O magazine, among others, and she is a regular contributor to the popular MamaMia website. Kylie's first novel, After the Fall, was published in Australia, the US and Turkey. Her previous books are Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity and Living with Alzheimer's and Other Dementias. She holds a PhD in neuropsychology and lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.