Böcker av Ian James Cochrane

Itinerant writer Don carries a broken satchel bulging with hand-written notes, and an ancient pack of picture cards gifted by an eccentric French mother on his sixteenth birthday. His father is Australian. Don leaves his Fremantle home for the West Australian Gold Country, then France, reuniting with his Peruvian girlfriend in 1990 South America. There he meets Michael the historian, twice by chance, Don's mother killed in a freakish accident and the young writer rushing home for the funeral.Two years later Don seeks out Michael in Melbourne. A further meeting is their last, Michael finding Don's mysterious pack of cards left behind. There is a phone call to Michael's office the very next day from Don's girlfriend, Maricielo distraught, Don killed in another accident - seven years after the death of his mother. Michael is a builder's son, methodical and normally self-assured, but bothered by coincidence. He reluctantly attends the funeral, meets Don's best friend and sister, Maricielo presenting him a handful of Don's earliest notes. Michael is at a loss what to do next, hopes his memories will fade and any questions will dissipate with time. He tucks the cards and notes at the back of his sock drawer believing that is the end of the story.Twenty-two years after the writer's freakish death, Michael inherits seven battered boxes stuffed with rambling, loose-leaf notes. Some pages are blank or half empty, some unreadable, others loaded with stories seeming disconnected - a dead man's diary of sorts. Michael is uncomfortable with prying but increasingly pulled back to something he thought left behind: the ghost of a dead writer, tales of Antipodean colonial cruelties, an odd dream, and records of a family atrocity rooted in the European Dark Ages.

Short stories telling tales from a small world; an eclectic, compilation from different corners of the globe. Sixty-one heartfelt sketches often laced with longing.We travel to Europe, Scandinavia and Oceania, The Middle East, Africa, Asia and The Americas; visit places of seclusion and reflection, mountains and memories, quiet towns and villages, cities immersed in their hustle and bustle. We visit the obvious to find the not so obvious. We visit the unusual. There is history and humour, mystery and regret, an odd assortment of bibs, bobs and bibelots - often nostalgic, reflective, happy or sad - sometimes all of the above. We meet many people along the way, including teachers, doctors, backpackers, country and city folk along with travelling souls of all ilks.Most of these offerings have been previously published here and there, in some form at least, scattered across various blogs, websites, the occasional newspaper and/or offered up in some literary competition.While there is lots of `travel' in this world-wide wander, the stories are very much focused on people, places and the human condition. The tales vary in length, a menagerie of the tall and the true, all intended to lead the reader to who knows where.

Short stories telling tales from a sunburned country. A wandering walkabout of a book, both Urban and Outback. Thirty-seven heartfelt sketches laced with longing.Within these pages we travel to the most eclectic corners of the country, from secluded sand spits and beaches to inland Birdsville; dine with dingoes, fishermen, farmers and cassowaries. There is history and humour, mystery and regret, an odd assortment of bibs, bobs and bibelots - often nostalgic, reflective, happy or sad - sometimes all of the above. We wander ruins and rocks with their own ancient stories; smell the mountain air, the mud and bulldust, the spinifex and baking sand from dune and desert. We meet Station hands, backpackers, country and city folk, travelling souls of all ilksMost of these offerings have been previously published here and there, in some form at least, scattered across various blogs, websites, the occasional newspaper and/or offered up in some literary competition.While there is lots of `travel' in this Antipodean oddity of a book, the stories are very much focused on people, places and the human condition. The tales vary in length, a menagerie of the tall and the true, all intended to lead the reader to who knows where.