Shadowboxing

Shortlisted for 2006 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards — Australian Short Story Collection

‘... think Angela’s Ashes set in 1960s Fitzroy ...’ Brooke Davis (Australian Bookseller & Publisher)

'Tony Birch's debut Shadowboxing encapsulates what (Helen) Garner identifies as 'the dangerous and exciting breakdown of the old boundaries between fiction and non-fiction' … Shadowboxing also transcends the boundaries between the novel and the short-story collection.' - Ceridwen Spark (Sydney Morning Herald)

‘A Fitzroy childhood comes to life in Melbourne writer Tony Birch’s impressive debut.’ (Who Magazine)

Shadowboxing is a collection of ten linked stories in the life of a boy growing up in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in the 1960s. A beautifully rendered time capsule, it captures a period of decay, turmoil, and change through innocent, unblinking eyes.

Michael’s family, led by his long-suffering mother, live as though under siege, surviving his father’s drinking and rage as well as the forces of ‘urban renewal’. Their neighbourhood is a world of simple pleasures as well as random brutality; of family life and love as well as violence and tragedy. As Michael experiences all this with a combination of wonder and fear, he matures into a sensitive adult who can forgive but never forget.

Shadowboxing is a riveting story of loss and permanence, power and weakness, stoicism and resistance.