Barking Dogs

Everybody thinks they know this story. But do they? If you took a bird’s-eye view of any sprawling Australian regional town, you’d see ordinary Australians living on their ordinary suburban blocks. Get closer. Peer through a window. In the town of Mount Barker, you might see Nathan Hearle obsessively recording the bark of a neighbourhood dog, or the Wheeler family sitting down for a meal and trying to come to terms with a shocking discovery. You might hear tales of fathers and their wayward sons, of widows who can’t forgive themselves, of children longed for and lost, of thwarted lust and of pure love. Within the shadows is an unspeakable crime. Rebekah Clarkson has created a compelling, slow-burning portrait of a town in the midst of major change as it makes the painful transformation from rural idyll to aspirational suburbia. What looked like redemption is now profound loss. What seemed spiteful can now be forgiven. A novel in stories, Barking Dogs is an assured debut from one of Australia’s most respected storytellers.

Publisher: Affirm Press
Author Biography: Rebekah Clarkson’s stories have been recognised in major awards in Australia and overseas, including the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, Fish Publishing Short Story Prize and Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open. Her short stories have appeared in publications including Griffith Review, Best Australian Stories and Something Special, Something Rare: Outstanding Short Stories by Australian Women (Black Inc.). She is the author of Barking Dogs (Affirm Press), a critically acclaimed short story cycle set in Mount Barker, South Australia where the author lives. Rebekah has taught creative writing at several Australian Universities, the University of Texas at Austin and most recently as a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Rebekah is a Board Member of the Society for the Study of the Short Story.
Language: English
Country of Origin: English
Page count: 232
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: Oct 2017