State of Origin

When David was a kid, he thought he knew everything – especially about his pesky and annoying siblings who kept popping up out of nowhere. But on the same night in 1980 David’s two brothers ran away, severely beaten. Years later David goes in search of them and in the process learns things about himself. State of Origin is a heart-warming and harrowing story about what happens when the Stolen Generation, Ava Gardner, the Russian Royal Family and evil step-fathers converge in the creation of identity. It’s an exploration of what parts of a shared childhood continue to bond long after a family has been blown apart.

‘How moving they are, the heroic imaginations of abandoned children.’ – Helen Garner

‘Kelly’s voice is the kind you want to sit down with and soak up and carry with you through life. His writing balances brilliantly between pathos and humour and moves through some of the most fraught, complex and compelling intersections of the current cultural landscape with a stunningly effective lightness of touch. The book is a delight. It is harrowing. It is haunting. It is the sort that will make you laugh out loud one moment and move you beyond words the next. It is the most powerful memoir I have read in years.’ – Michael Sala