One street. Three couples. A world of possibilities. In 1989 the Newcastle earthquake opens up faultlines in the relationships of three couples who reside in adjoining terraces, changing their lives irreparably. Each of those six people now has to rediscover ways to negotiate marriage and infidelity, careers and unemployment, friendship and loss. First they must learn how to survive each new day and then, a decade later - as the city's major employer, the steelworks, shuts down - they will finally realise how to live as if each night were their last. Written in spare prose, What Came Between takes ordinary lives and makes them both familiar and extraordinary. Through the accumulation of telling details, Patrick Cullen creates a compelling portrait of what it's really means to live now - in one street, in one city. 'Luminous and compelling, Patrick Cullen's storytelling lures us into his brilliantly realised world.' PADDY O'REILLY 'Fascinating tales from one of the most original and intriguing short-story writers in Australia.'
ROBERT DREWE 'Brilliant in conception, pitch-perfect in narrative voice, and complex in its vision of how we seek our deepest selves in the crush of the quotidian.' ROBERT OLEN BUTLER