The Invisible Rider

Description

This delightful collection of linked short stories focuses on Philip Fetch, a lawyer with an office in a suburban shopping mall who feels increasingly out of step with his society and neighbours. At once surreal and whimsical, and fired by a quietly burning moral engagement, THE INVISIBLE RIDER is an antipodean cousin of Calvino's Marcovaldo. [McDougall] captures the absurdist state of motherhood - the battle between biscuits and principles. From the foul-mouthed four-year-old taking "thirty-six hours and a knife to come out" to the "maniac with a hygiene fetish", the details are droll and true, and the story ends where a preschooler's logic might lead you. - Sarah Laing, The NZ Listener.

Reviews

[McDougall] captures the absurdist state of motherhood – the battle between biscuits and principles. From the foul-mouthed four-year-old taking “thirty-six hours and a knife to come out” to the “maniac with a hygiene fetish”, the details are droll and true, and the story ends where a preschooler’s logic might lead you. – Sarah Laing, The NZ Listener.

Author description

Kirsten McDougall was born in 1974 and grew up in Wellington and Masterton. She was educated at Victoria University, graduating in 2004 with a Masters in Creative Writing. She has had writing published in Sport, Turbine and Big Weather: Poems of Wellington (2nd edition). Kirsten was a winner of The Long and the Short of It short story competition in 2011, in which her story 'Clean hands save lives' won first prize in the short section. She lives in Wellington with her partner and two children. The Invisible Rider is her first book.