Read our Q&A with Ryan O'Neill about The Weight of a Human Heart.
Sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, this collection turns the rules of storytelling on their head.
A series of graphs illustrates the disintegration of a marriage, step by excruciating step. A literary stoush – and an affair – play out in the book review section of a national newspaper. The heartbreaking story of a Rwandan boy is hidden within his English exam paper. A young girl learns her mother’s disturbing secrets through the broken key on a typewriter.
Ranging from Australia to Africa to China and back again, The Weight of a Human Heart heralds a fresh new voice in Australian literature.
“Stories full of wit, irony, wild invention, love and pain — and sometimes shocking power.” – Paddy O’Reilly
“By turns acerbic, playful and serious, O’Neill is equally at home with satire and pathos.” – Cate Kennedy
“With each new story O’Neill redefines the boundaries of what is possible” – Patrick Cullen
