Rose Boys

Rose Boys is the wrenching, stunning account of a family living for about a quarter of a century in the sometimes tightening, sometimes loosening, but never absent, grip of a catastrophe.'
Brian Matthews, The Age
'...a book of immense emotional force that is a eulogy to his brother, a tribute to his parents and a powerful demonstration of the redemptive quality of suffering.'
Brent Crosswell, Meanjin
'... a deeply felt, passionately uplifting story...'
Liam Davison. The Weekend Australian
Rose Boys is the story of two brothers 3/4 profoundly different, compellingly linked by blood ties, a famous sporting family and the terrible misfortune that befell one of them.
Robert Rose was an Australian Rules footballer and a cricketer who could have been one of the best of his generation. On St Valentine's Day 1974 all that changed when a terrible car accident left him a quadriplegic. Robert lived for another twenty-five years, totally dependent on others. His brother Peter followed a very different path, as a poet, a poet, publisher and leading Australian literary figure. This is Peter's tribute to his brother.
Rose Boys is the story of Robert's unaffected heroism, the limitless love of a
mother and father, and the intimate world shared by two very different brothers.
Above all, it is a family memoir of rare penetration and candour.

FRONT COVER QUOTE:
'A deep family story of suffering, love and passionate devotion, richly and freshly told.'
Helen Garner

HALF TITLE PAGE QUOTES:
'Rose Boys is an intimate and moving 3/4 though never maudlin 3/4 story of familial love ... often simple, sometimes rich and lyrical, and always clich free.'
Daniel Williams, Time
'Far removed from conventional sports writing, this is a sad and beautiful essay on suffering, fortitude, heroism and love...[it] reads like a fine and sensitive novel.'
Michael Costigan, Tain
'... a moving story expertly told.'
Andrew Riemer, Sydney Morning Herald
'I'm not sure when I last came across someone who has written so powerfully about death...'
Martin Flanagan, The Age
'...eloquent, profoundly moving, deep-seeing into the mysteries of human suffering...a special book about a special man and the diminished life he managed so richly to share with others.'
Richard Freadman, Australian Review of Books
'Rose's powerful book is about finding words to describe those events that leave us in silence.'
David McCooey, HEAT
'Rose Boys is a wonderful story about a relationship between men. It touches core issues of identity and loss but does so in a quietly undemonstrative manner.
Michael McGirr, Eureka Street chael McGirr, Eureka Street