Wood Green

Michael, an aspiring writer who has recentlyfinished his PhD, takes a job as the secretary to his literary hero, LucianClarke, a reclusive novelist with a mysterious cosmopolitan past, who lives ina cottage in a village on a mountain outside Hobart which gives the book itstitle, Wood Green . Peopled by anensemble cast, the local publican the single mother who manages the pub'skitchen, the unhappily married couple that runs the corner store, a newcomerfrom Johannesburg with a murky past, a snivelling B&B proprietor and adetermined ex-girlfriend, Wood Green artfully evokes the claustrophobia of small-town life. While Michael believeshe is making a new life for himself, Lucian has other plans. Rabin writes withwit and intelligence and deftly executes an unsuspected plot twist in hisexploration of the perils of literary ambition and the elusive prospect of artisticlegacy. Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Sean Rabin has worked asa dishwasher, cook, script reader, copy-editor and journalist. He has lived inIreland, Italy, London and New York, and now resides in Sydney, Australia. Whennot writing, he is reading and listening to music. His short stories have beenpublished in Australia and the United States. Reading Group notes for Wood Green here.