The well-known cartoonist Christopher ‘Cob’ Byrne has lost his job, his marriage, his bearings – and his appetite for the present. In a quest for stronger moorings, he returns to the modest coastal suburb of his Perth childhood – now a billionaires' playground – and memories of less chaotic times.
One memory refuses to leave him: the day a terrified pony bolted over a limestone cliff – and Cob nearly followed it. Decades later, he remains convinced that the boy who pushed him was Clyde Slater, now a mining magnate and, inconveniently, the new owner of the newspaper that has just sacked him.
Cob’s mother Judy tells him he’s suffering from ‘the fugue’. She and his father Paul view life through nightly G&Ts while feeding bacon rind to butcherbirds from their Northern Rivers veranda, as they grapple with various ailments, ingenious scams and the local wellness culture. Meanwhile, Cob’s daughter Sophie has asked him to illustrate her latest book for children – a story about a young rhinoceros searching for her father gone astray.
Cob retreats into the memories that keep him afloat – teenage summers at North Cottesloe, Rottnest Island, the Ocean Beach Hotel … and a girl he fell for as a young artist and has never forgotten. Sometimes, it seems the only way forward is to go back.
