SHORTLISTED FOR 2007 PREMIER'S QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS: AUSTRALIAN SHORT STORY COLLECTION

OPRAH MAGAZINE ‘NEW VOICE OF THE MONTH’

In these sublimely sophisticated tales, Cate Kennedy opens up worlds of finely observed detail. Her stories are populated by people at tipping points in their lives — moments that find them poised between a familiar past and an unfamiliar future. In ‘The Testosterone Club’, a neglected wife plans an unsavoury revenge on her boorish husband. In ‘Resize’, a married couple realise their too-tight wedding rings may symbolise wider aspects of their relationship. And in ‘Cold Snap’, a young boy senses that the newly arrived tree changer may have some sinister intents. Heartbreaking, evocative and richly comic, Dark Roots unveils the traumas that incite us to desperate measures, and the coincidences that drive our lives.

PRAISE FOR CATE KENNEDY

‘stunning ... Each story picks you up, takes you out of your life and smack bang into the middle of another place and time where the troubles and joys are laid bare and stripped back to their essence with incredibly spare and gifted writing. This collection is a joy to read...’ The Sunday Age

‘These are precisely observed pieces, deserving of a wide audience.’ The Guardian