The Rules of Backyard Cricket

Description

It starts in a suburban backyard with Darren Keefe and his older brother, sons of a fierce and gutsy single mother. The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game. Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety-one of those men who's always got away with things and just keeps getting. Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged, cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow grave. The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a novel of suspense in the tradition of Peter Temple's Truth. With glorious writing harnessed to a gripping narrative, it observes celebrity, masculinity-humanity-with clear-eyed lyricism and exhilarating narrative drive. 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong, while classified as 'crime', is a compelling literary novel dissecting toxic sporting culture and its fallout.' Paddy O'Reilly, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket got the thumbs up from everyone.' Favourite Fiction for 2016, Avenue Bookstore 'Blow me down if I didn't hang on every word.' Clare Wright, Best Books of 2016, Australian 'One of the great novels written about sport...Delicious. It's the top read of the summer.' Stuff.co.nz 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong, while classified as 'crime', is a compelling literary novel dissecting toxic sporting culture and its fallout.' Paddy O'Reilly, Best Books of 2016, Australian Book Review

Jock Serong lives and works on the far southwest coast of Victoria. Formerly a lawyer, he is now a features writer, and was the editor of Great Ocean Quarterly. His first novel, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel. His most recent novel is The Rules of Backyard Cricket. Jock is married with four children and lives in Port Fairy, Victoria.

'Funny, sad and oddly touching...Beautifully written and acutely observed, The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a noir tour de force...Original Australian crime fiction of the first order. -- Sue Turnbull Sydney Morning Herald 'Serong writes pithy, pin-sharp dialogue...The book is expertly plotted, and its noirish climax with its dark drama and its final twists, is devastating. Get out and buy this book; it is the best new novel I've read this year.' Crime Time 'A novel of suspense, I heartily recommend it.' Shots 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket hits all other cricket books I've read to date for six. This tale is not just about cricket, it's about the good, the bad and the ugly and a timely story, too, with sporting integrity often in question.' Weekly Times 'Serong is an elegant writer who can move effortlessly from laugh out-loud funny to elegiac to downright touching...Those of us who played back garden cricket and remember how seriously it was taken by all concerned will lap up every single run and wicket in this book.' Crime Review 'The writing is sharp and the flawed characters compelling...Serong bowls with a wry eye.' Otago Daily Times 'Suffice it to say the back cover blurb that draws a parallel between The Rules of Backyard Cricket and Peter Temple's best work is no exaggeration. Serong pulls off what I consider an Australian crime writer's most sought-after Quinella (to use a metaphor from another sport): a literary crime novel that qualifies as genuine Australian noir.' -- Angela Savage '[A] gripping tale of sibling rivalry as two Aussie brothers battle in cricket and in life.' -- Best Books of 2016 New Zealand Listener 'Jock Serong returns with this bitterly, beautifully nostalgic look at a seventies childhood gone awry' -- Best Crime Books of 2016 Readings 'Jock Serong's gripping narrative is a compassionate exploration of masculinity and humanity as he chillingly questions whether we truly know those who are closest to us.' Good Reading 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong, while classified as 'crime', is a compelling literary novel dissecting toxic sporting culture and its fallout.' -- Paddy O'Reilly Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket got the thumbs up from everyone.' Favourite Fiction for 2016, Avenue Bookstore 'Blow me down if I didn't hang on every word.' -- Clare Wright Best Books of 2016, Australian 'One of the great novels written about sport...Delicious. It's the top read of the summer.' Stuff.co.nz 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong, while classified as 'crime', is a compelling literary novel dissecting toxic sporting culture and its fallout.' -- Paddy O'Reilly Australian Book Review 'A deeply interesting novel about sibling rivalry, family, masculinity, and the game of cricket...Serong is a talented storyteller, and he brings this unusual world to life.' Booklist