A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists

It is 1997 in San Francisco and Simon and Sarah have been sent on a quest to see America: they must stand at least once in every 25-foot square of the country. Decades later, in an Australian city that has fallen on hard times, Caddy is camped by the Maribyrnong River, living on small change from odd jobs, ersatz vodka and memories. She's sick of being hot, dirty, broke and alone. Caddy's future changes shape when her friend, Ray, stumbles across some well-worn maps, including one of San Francisco, and their lives connect with those of teenagers Simon and Sarah in ways that are unexpected and profound. A meditation on happiness - where and in what place and with who we can find our centre, a perceptive vision of where our world is headed, and a testament to the power of memory and imagination, this is the best of novels: both highly original and eminently readable. 'A free-range and funny apocalyptic time-space road trip, with James M. Cain, J. G. Ballard, and Tom Robbins all fighting for the wheel.' Steven Amsterdam, author of Things We Didn't See Coming and What the Family Needed. 'I thoroughly loved this book. I know so much more about the present and the future. Melbourne looks great as a ruined tropical mega shanty town − I can't wait. This must be the first of a new genre-or it's the wrecking of a few old ones. Film-like, dream-like, life-like. Funny, and charming.' Dave Graney , author of 1001 Australian Nights