Swarm

What happens when three old friends from NIDA meet again? What is Marc Chagall doing in St Peters in the twenty-first century? Why does a young woman disappear in suburban Sydney? These people are governed by a swarm of impulses that hurl them into situations that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking. There’s seduction by cake, a buried secret and the announcement of a pregnancy on a peak-hour train. In eleven stories, bound together by recurring characters, Kissane creates a fictional world that is familiar and strange, engaging and exhilarating. Ultimately, The Swarm is a book about love: the difficulty of finding love and hanging onto it in the face of the dilemmas thrown up by life. Andy Kissane’s characters seek the sweetness at life’s centre, often becoming the victims of their own naivete. These are stories to savour, stories where the reader’s own imagination will supply the final outcomes. - Carmel Bird Each story here conveys the skill, the art and generosity of a writer who respects both the form and his readers. - Tony Birch Andy Kissane has published one novel, Under the Same Sun and three books of poetry, Facing the Moon, Every Night They Dance and Out to Lunch, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize for Poetry. He is currently the Coriole National Wine Poet and six of his poems are featured on the back of the 2011 Coriole Cabernet Shiraz. He lives in Sydney and teaches creative writing in schools, universities and the community. Website: http://andykissane.com