Secret Lives

34 stories by Peter Carey, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Lily Brett, Tim Winton, Elizabeth Jolley and many more of Australia's finest modern writers.

The themes and styles of these brilliant stories range widely - from sharp realism to fantasy, to science fiction - but each one offers an illumination. Each opens up an inner or secret life.

In choosing them, Barry Oakley looked for one thing - 'stories that worked'. The result is some of the finest work by many of Australia's most gifted contemporary writers - as well as a handfull by some exciting new ones.

Barry Oakley has written a short lead-in to each story, to set the scene and whet the appetite. He has arranged them into categories, giving shape and symmetry to an oustanding anthology.