Coach Fitz

One of the strangestand most appealing novels you will read this year! Tom Lee's first novel is about a young jogger who is in a relationshipwith an older woman. She is both his coach and his mentor. Coach Fitz, as hecalls her, seeks to instil a philosophy of running which combines 'controlledintensity' with a curiosity about places and their histories. A country boy, heis fascinated by the landscapes of the city beaches and parks through which theytravel. And he has his own obsessions - with exercise routines, ancestrallegacies, outdoor gyms, horse-racing, weather conditions and inner-city eatinghabits. Then, suddenly, their relationship falls apart, over the issue of sex -and he becomes a coach and mentor in turn, to a young man this time, as he attemptsto orchestrate an ideal expression of his emotional, athletic and intellectualurges. Coach Fitz is an exploration of the outdoor mentality that playssuch a dominant role in the Australian psyche. It is remarkable for itsobservations about landscape and physical exercise, embedded in the trainingroutines and dialogues of the runners. But most of all it is about the emotionsand aspirations of youth, and the complications these engender.