In the Shade of the Shady Tree
Stories of Wheatbelt Australia

“The chief strength of this large group of 33 ‘glimpses’ in Shady Tree is the direct writing style, a frankness driven by Kinsella’s complicated sense of purpose…. The book is a story collage that evokes the range of loneliness and togetherness of the region’s people…. Powerful.”

The National

“The stories are full of secrets, both open and closed, and they are fascinated with how they operate in this kind of (rural Australian) society. This leads to a mood which is sometimes gothic and something more emaciated, like the hungry banality that is so unnerving in the work of Raymond Carver…. (The) cumulative effect is highly satisfying and affecting. It is yet another crucial work by this important Australian author.”

Southerly

“John Kinsella can see into the heart of the country, and the evidence of these taut, complex stories is that what he sees there is both ferocious and unresolved.”

The Australian

"Unusual fiction in a strange place of extremes…. These stories read like slices of life, each with real place names. Yet the stories' endings are fictionally important, meaningful or mysterious, always unexpected…. (An) extraordinary collection.”

NewPages Book Reviews

In the Shade of the Shady Tree is a collection of stories set in the Western Australian wheatbelt, a vast grain-growing area that ranges across the southwestern end of the immense Australian interior. Kinsella’s stories offer glimpses into the lives of the people who call this area home, as the reader journeys from just north of the town of Geraldton to the far eastern and southern shires of the region.

Cast against a backdrop of indigenous dispossession, settler migration, and the destructive impact of land-clearing and monocultural farming methods, the stories offer moments of connection with the inhabitants, ranging from the matter-of-fact to the bizarre and inexplicable. Something about the nature of the place wrestles with all human interactions and affects their outcomes. The land itself is a dominant character, with dust, gnarled scrubland, and the need for rain underpinning human endeavor. Inflected with both contemporary ideas of short fiction and the “everyman” tradition of Australian storytelling, this collection will introduce many readers to a new landscape and unforgettable characters.

John Kinsella’s highly regarded books of poetry include Peripheral Light: Selected and New Poems and Jam Tree Gully. He is also the author of numerous plays and collections of short stories and essays. He taught at Kenyon College in Ohio and now is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. He lives at Jam Tree Gully in Western Australia.   More info →