Indra publishing

Henry Ditassio is a repressed clerk living a claustrophobic life. His repetitive compulsive existence at A.G. Muir’s office has left no room for prospect until he meets bored narcissistic manipulative Arb Ginghus whose obsession with Henry can only explode in a kind of madness.

In this story of mad imagination & taut relationships Kirwan puts popular wisdom and our concepts of time on its head. As Arb Ginghus says, “If there is one thing I despise it is common sense for it will teach you nothing that is worth knowing; it is the obscure, the impractical, the impulsive which tells you what is what.”

Kirwan’s mordant wit takes us on a journey where recollection and perception become confused, strangely echoing our own lives.

A beautifully crafted, disarming novel.

For readers who like psychological thrillers, dark fantasy, a surrealist take on life.

December 2004, 160 pp
Paperback, 210 x 138 mm
ISBN 1 92078706 2
Literary fiction, 1st edition
RRP $aud 23-95
ISBN-13 978

The Author
For twenty years since the mid-seventies, Valerie Kirwan was something of a legend in Melbourne theatre, writing, directing and performing plays which challenged and enchanted her audiences.

More recently, Valerie is writing novellas and short stories in which she tests her characters against the subconscious stresses that exist below the surface of our outwardly normal, everyday world. Through intrigue, suspense, and more than a little sardonic humour, Valerie challenges us to join in her psychological dramas.

Valerie’s published books
Taking A Fool to Paradise (Indra 2004)
Lovers and Losers of the Last Century (Indra 2001)
The Disease of the Silkworm (Hornets Nest 2000)
The Moon is Bloodshot (Hornets Nest 1999)
The Will to Fall (Penguin 1984)

Valerie Kirwan’s sharp observation and sharper wit presents us with these four cameos of love loved and love lost in the last decades of the twentieth century. Local stories with universal themes, the novellas reflect the emotional roller coaster of the century of alienation.

And then there were the good nights – a novella about love, friendship and good times over two decades 1974 to 1994 – focuses on a small group of friends whose lives revolve around theatre and their relationships.

In the cold morning light – a mystery thriller and a story of elusive love. When Aysin returns alone to Charles’s isolated house without Bebe, her lover, she becomes obsessed with questions about Bebe’s fate and Charles’s role in her disappearance.

Michael – a story of illusory love – portrays a domineering mother through the eyes of Anna, her son’s girlfriend. Domination and alienation mark the bleak days spent at Michael’s mother’s house, days that culminate in Anna’s losing Michael as he withdraws into a new identity, which allows her no place in his life.

Mrs Wedge’s Waterford and a crate of champagne – a black comedy about life without love – is Lou Wedge’s story of coping with her irascible ailing mother and her own frustrated loneliness.

Feb 2001, 210pp
Paperback, 215 x 138 mm
ISBN 0 9585805 1 0
RRP $aud 20.95
Literary fiction; Novellas
ISBN-13 978

The Author
For twenty years since the mid-seventies, Valerie Kirwan was something of a legend in Melbourne theatre, writing, directing and performing plays which challenged and enchanted her audiences.

More recently, Valerie is writing novellas and short stories in which she tests her characters against the subconscious stresses that exist below the surface of our outwardly normal, everyday world. Through intrigue, suspense, and more than a little sardonic humour, Valerie challenges us to join in her psychological dramas.

Valerie’s published books
Taking A Fool to Paradise (Indra 2004)
Lovers and Losers of the Last Century (Indra 2001)
The Disease of the Silkworm (Hornets Nest 2000)
The Moon is Bloodshot (Hornets Nest 1999)
The Will to Fall (Penguin 1984)