It’s 1958. Hollywood star Errol Flynn is past his prime, living out life in Jamaica propped up by vodka, morphine and his underage companion, Beverley Aadland. A young Fidel Castro is on the verge of taking power in nearby Cuba, fighting the Batista regime with his band of guerrilla rebels. Improbably, each has something to offer the other. Flynn seizes on the cinematic potential of the revolution to conceive a film – the hopelessly B-grade Assault of the Rebel Girls, written and directed by Flynn and starring Beverley – and descends on the Cuban hills to shoot it among real fighting and real rebels. Castro’s support is essential, and Castro in turn takes the opportunity to exploit Flynn and to learn how to come across as a national hero.

Australian author Boyd Anderson’s novel is a fast-paced – though never facile – imagining of these events; a self-aware exploration of artificial and genuine heroism. Anderson convincingly captures the voice of a celluloid swashbuckler on the way out and the symmetry of the main characters’ trajectory is pleasing, but what fascinates most about this novel are the events it depicts – implausible, but true.