In the blisteringly fierce 'Mad Love', a young woman honeymoons in Africa with her new husband. Unflappable, dully affable, immune to the horrors of the world lurking beyond the tour bus, he becomes ever more loathsome to her.

'Mad Love' is a short story taken from Maria Takolander's powerful debut collection, The Double.

Maria Takolander is a senior lecturer in literature at Deakin University in Geelong. She is the author of a work of literary criticism and two poetry collections. Her poems have featured in annual best-of anthologies for the past seven years. The Double is her first book of fiction.

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'Maria Takolander's stories are written in a bewitching minor key. Haunting and mysterious, this is a collection that you will want to savour, then read all over again.' Danielle Wood

'Extraordinary. I was entranced. Takolander's stories have a remarkable concentration of vision; their images are haunting and powerful, and will remain with me for a long time.' Jeremy Chambers