Philip Salom

The scar on the back of Sweeney's head is shaped like an S. He is obsessed with the beauty of bicycles, which he steals after painting his face in astonishing shapes and patterns. Asha Sen is the psychiatrist he begins to see for sessions. Then he meets sisters Rose and Heather, two look-alike women who'd rather be different. Written with...

Longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2021 Jack retreats to an Airbnb cottage in a small coastal town. As a writer, he is preoccupied with the phenomenon of found people: the Somerton Man, the Gippsland Man, the Isdal Woman—people who are found dead, their identities unknown or erased—and the mysterious pull this has on the public mind. In Blue...

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 Elizabeth posts a 'room for rent' notice in Trevor's bookshop and is caught off-guard when Trevor answers the ad himself. She expected a young student, not a middle-aged bookseller whose marriage has fallen apart. But Trevor is attracted to Elizabeth's house because of the empty shed in her backyard, the perfect space...

Big is a hefty cross-dresser, and Little is little. Both are long used to the routines of boarding house life in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, but Little, with the prospect of an inheritance, is worrying Big by indulging in dreams of home ownership. Little's cousin, Angus, is a solitary man who designs lake-scapes for city councils, and fireproof houses...

Philip Salom's major new collection explores human and natural existence— as life-force and loss, and for diverse symptoms of achievement and folly. His intense scrutiny gives air to the unavoidable complexity of voices raised and voices ignored. Whether it's injury and mortality (our own) or disturbance and urgency (our climate), Salom uses a subtle insight and a roving, inventive wit...