A Distant Summer's Day

A group of youths drive endlessly round their small town trying to avoid the hoodlums out to get them; a young man returns from university to the family farm where he must finally stand up to his father and they both must face the past; two teenagers spend the weekend in the bush on a farm and must come to grips with the realities of loss and grief; a young man working in telesales tries to reach out to another human being in a dehumanised society; a woman recalls the harshness of her childhood as she steels herself to evict a behind in their rent tenant; a middle-aged woman faces redundancy as she recalls an unfortunate affair that shaped her whole life and she thinks of what might have been; a youth just out of high school contemplates life in the adult world and yearns for a young woman who unfortunately favours the local heavy and his gang; an eager young journalist interviews one of his literary heroes and learns that even the great are only human. Twlelve pieces of short fiction showing different aspects of life in New Zealand, on a farm, in small towns and in the city as characters search for meaning and connection.