Bruce Eason moves his characters through a stark landscape, lone figures whose paths often cross but seldom converge. His stories are full of heart and muscle, telling contemporary truths about misaligned relationships and modern antidotes for ancient wounds. A therapist uses anger to mask his fear of a young boy’s unfathomable paintings, two strangers substitute desire for love after witnessing a death; humour is the language of humiliation for a man intimaidatedby his womenfolk. The rage, lonliness and passion in these lives are etched in Eason’s tough, tender prose and stained by his ironic vision.