Common People
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
These remarkable and surprising stories capture common people caught up in the everyday business of living and the struggle to survive. From two single mothers on the most unlikely night shift to a homeless man unexpectedly faced with the miracle of a new life, Birch's stories are set in gritty urban refuges and battling regional communities. His deftly drawn characters find unexpected signs of hope in a world where beauty can be found on every street corner – a message on a T-shirt, a friend in a stray dog or a star in the night sky.
Common People shines a light on human nature and how the ordinary kindness of strangers can have extraordinary results. With characteristic insight and restraint, Tony Birch reinforces his reputation as a master storyteller.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Tony Birch’s third book of short stories recalls the beauty of the everyday, the kindness in small gestures and the humour found in ordinary conversations. In these fifteen stories, Birch, an author and academic of First Nations, Irish and West Indian descent, has us traverse an impressive diversity of settings—from the bush, where we visit an old timber cutter’s shack, to the inner city, where we watch kids play in the waterwall at the National Gallery of Victoria. Through his fragile, funny, hard-nosed characters, Birch teases out the themes of salvation, isolation and survival. For instance, we meet an assured young boy wary of the friendship of a godly, white, new girl at school; a suffering middle-aged man living with the trauma of a childhood spent in a Boys Home; and a stoic grandmother addressing her alcohol addiction day by day. These stories are beautifully paced—the tension mounts imperceptibly, culminating in sweet, simple and, often, profound final moments. Common People is a remarkable collection.
