In the tiny town of Bridgetown, Western Australia in the 1960s, David Carlin was only six months old when Brian, his father, mysteriously died. In a time and place when suicide was taboo, Brian’s story began to fade in the memory of the Carlin family.

Determined to complete the picture of his father, David pieces together the memories of old friends and relatives with Brian’s vast array of medical records. From his journeys through the harsh wheat belt landscape during the Depression, training at the HMAS Cerberus navel base at Crib Point before being sent on active duty, to the bohemian university days in late 1940s Perth, married life and eventually to the gradual unravelling of his sanity after initially being diagnosed with a ‘nervous condition’ after returning from war. David Carlin’s memoir is a sensitive insight into human fragility, love and loss.