Paddy O'Reilly

A teenager on the tram meets an old man claiming to be Jesus Christ. Six young women band together on a night prowl. A Filipino immigrant clashes with his eldest sister, who has brought him to Australia for a better life. And in a future where dogs have risen up against their owners, a mother is alarmed by her adolescent...

A sparkling collection of award-winning short stories, stylistically varied and enlivened by a wry, dark humour, this collection shows Paddy O'Reilly living up to the promise shown in her debut novel The Factory. With subtlety and assurance, O'Reilly creates narrative voices and situations spanning a broad range of experience—an alien visitor who communicates in the language of romance, a woman...

Lily works as a cleaner. She moves through houses in inner-city Melbourne, unseen, scrubbing away the daily residue of other people's privilege. Her partner Janks works the line in a local food factory. With every pay check, they inch further away from their former world of poverty and addiction. Lily and Janks are determined that their daughter Jewelee will have...