This is a collection of short stories that focus not on war but its aftermath. Each story is set on Australian soil but with powerful and enduring links to distant lands.
What sort of Australia did the first limbless diggers return to? The First ANZAC Day deals with the first broken soldier to return to his hometown in 1916.
The brotherhood-like culture of returned diggers underpins the legend of ANZAC. Us and Them is about what happens when this legend is just a thin veneer papering over long held simmering hatreds.
Long before PTSD was recognised and treated, how did those broken souls fare in a society that glorified the war? Bayonet is the story of a returned serviceman who brings his deadly skills home from the Western Front and embarks on a killing spree.
Veterans often refuse to let go of the past. Finding Elliot tells of a flight crew's return to a crash site to locate one of their own.