Palmer Lingard grew up in a quiet respectable suburb, in the Brisbane of the 1950s. He is emerging from the sunny, secure world of childhood into the vulnerability of adolescent self-consciousness, romanticism, and insistent, baffling sexuality; a charmed time, when fantasy and reality can magically overlap, and hideously clash; when heightened awareness and sensitivity can create moments of exquisite delight, and deepest misery and disgust.Perhaps everything that happened to Palmer Lingard afterwards could be related to this time in his life, or rather, to its abrupt and wretched end. His whole, strange story had, perhaps, after all, a relentless inevitability.The tale unfolds, and patterns emerge. Palmer moves from suburb to outback station, to city. The women who love him leave their mark-his mother, the eager Marcia, the sophisticated, older Adele. And watching, always watching, is the sad, strange mother of his son, Brolie.Evocative, moving, sometimes chilling, always absorbing, this extraordinary novel is compelling reading.