{"product_id":"9781925626292","title":"Off the Record: A Novel","description":"\u003ci\u003eI have knocked on flyscreens and said to mothers of kidnapped toddlers, ‘Don’t you feel guilty for leaving your child in the front yard alone?’ I have shamed them to tears for the photographer. I have gatecrashed funerals, linked innocent corpses to local crime syndicates. Or feigned empathy to the grief-stricken to make copy from their hard-luck stories. I enjoyed the kudos of my name beneath headlines on front pages and became used to the heartlessness as if blank inside. I was doing it for my family—it was worth the cruelty. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e That line of work gives your eyes a plastic appearance. I’ve noticed it in the mirror, a dead glitter.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Callum Smith—Wordsmith, Words for short—is a newspaper journalist of the old school. He knows how to write a story that sings, knows all the tricks of the tabloid trade. And he likes to drink with his colleagues, sometimes to flirt dangerously with young women.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cp\u003eWhen his marriage blows up after a night of drinking goes way too far, Words is forced to leave the family home. Desperate to impress his estranged wife and feckless teenage son, he quits his job, taking a pay cut to work with a new online publication covering local crime. There the plum role of editor will soon be his, he reasons. \u003c\/p\u003e To Words, ‘Honesty is a thief—it steals your life.’ Better to do whatever it takes to get back in someone’s good books. And that is what he sets out to do, in a series of ever more calamitous, destructive and amoral adventures. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Will the irredeemable Words win back his family? Or is comeuppance around the corner? \u003cbr\u003e A satirical novel by Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisted author Craig Sherborne,\u003ci\u003e Off the Record \u003c\/i\u003estylishly skewers tabloid journalism and male vanity.\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCraig Sherborne\u003c\/b\u003e’s memoir \u003ci\u003eHoi Polloi\u003c\/i\u003e (2005) was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. The follow-up, \u003ci\u003eMuck\u003c\/i\u003e (2007), won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. Craig’s first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Amateur Science of Love\u003c\/i\u003e  (2011), won the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award,  and was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and a NSW  Premier’s Literary Award. His second novel, \u003ci\u003eTree Palace\u003c\/i\u003e (2014), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.\u003cbr\u003e Craig has also written two volumes of poetry, \u003ci\u003eBullion\u003c\/i\u003e (1995) and \u003ci\u003eNecessary Evil\u003c\/i\u003e (2005), and a verse drama, \u003ci\u003eLook at Everything Twice for Me\u003c\/i\u003e (1999). He lives outside Melbourne.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘Sherborne’s talents with narrative and poetry combine to produce a  striking fiction...offering a unique, vivid portrait of his characters.  With the crystallisation and compression of poetry, Sherborne explores  ideas of property, freedom and loyalty, and produces a novel as  beautiful in its conjunctions as the chandelier swinging over its  landscapes.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAustralian\u003c\/i\u003e on Tree Palace\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'A riveting piece of writing that is liable to transfix any reader who  gets past the opening chapter...Sherborne is a breathtaking writer  because he writes of unspeakable things with a kind of affectless  gaucherie that dazzles the mind...this is an engulfing, heart-stopping  book - a performance that dazzles the eyes and leaves the reader gasping  for air.' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAge\u003c\/i\u003e on \u003ci\u003eThe Amateur Science of Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Text Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47151383085296,"sku":"9781925626292","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781925626292_p0.jpg?v=1763634894","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781925626292","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}