Peter Twohig Knihy

Melbourne, 1960. One Saturday morning, in the middle of busy Richmond, the Blayney kid's brand new brother is kidnapped right out of his pram, setting off a train of events that couldn't possibly have been anticipated. First, the Blayney family, who are a very mysterious crowd with dubious connections all over town, decide to take matters into their own hands. Then, the kid himself decides to conduct his own enquiries, knowing that this is probably a very bad idea, but driven as he might himself be a target for the kidnappers. Adopting the guise of The Mazemaster, he mobilises his friends, some of whom come from the dodgiest of families, and swings into action, collecting evidence all over the place, getting involved in a shooting, another kidnapping, an unwelcome hospitalisation, the theft of a train, being chased down into the maze of drains and tunnels beneath Richmond - territory he regards as his own - all in spite of dire warnings from his grandfather, who is a very scary bloke in his own right, a man from ASIO, and a beautiful gypsy lady who knows a lot more than she's telling, finally getting into the stickiest mess you can possibly imagine. A brilliantly daring, touching and downright funny novel about loss, discovery and the kid in all of us. The Mazemaster is a crazy ride.

Early 20th Century Melbourne. When an awkward, diminutive twelve-year old boy faces up to a bully, he discovers that for him there is nothing sweeter than the pleasure of punching someone. He discovers simultaneously that he has an irresistible urge to write poetry. These two urges shape his life, as he goes from prison to the battlefields of Palestine, then, finally, into the boxing ring. What follows is a career of professional boxing throughout which he is plagued not only by pain, but by the knowledge that he is a must fight dirty to survive, and by an inner poetic voice which commands him to write, to his shame.Throughout his ordeal, which comes to shape his life and his relationship, his fame as a poet grows, yet it is at the expense of anonymity, which he adopts out of his irrational certainty that only a weak man could be a poet, and that he will lose face as a fighter if he is exposed. Eventually comes the unravelling.An Ill-fitting Man is a brave and captivating novel about a man who seems to be fit for nothing and greatness at the same time.“Another classic of Australian literature with the same sharpness as Twohig’s previous novels.”