In his beguiling collection of short stories, Delights and Disappointments, Larry Boyd offers extraordinary insight into the human psyche and the many ways that we experience love and loss in our lives.

Deceptively simple at times, each of the 16 vignettes reveals the intensity of the joy and sadness in the lives of ordinary people. Whether the young couple debating the question of parenthood, or four women in wheel chairs creating a play about their reproductive rights, or a young gay man forgoing all paternal rights for the sake of his unborn baby, Boyd deals with these situations with great delicacy. A more sombre note is evident in the unexpected confrontation between a CEO and the leader of a bikie gang, and the quest of a Vietnamese woman to find out how she survived the fall of Saigon. Wry humour permeates the short tale of the cat and the canary, as it does the rehearsals of neurodiverse actors mounting a production of Bluebeard.

Boyd's fluidity of expression and subtle observations evoke a sense of familiarity while also revealing surprising strengths and deficits that we might at times find in ourselves. The promise of delight and the possibility of disappointment is ever-present.