234(Ht mm) 153(Wdt mm) 384

A gritty and heartfelt gay coming-of-age story set in the world of FIFO workers and tradies in Western Australia, from the author of the bestselling Invisible Boys

Giacomo Brolo, aka Jack, is a mess. He works piecemeal construction gigs in remote WA, drinks himself to oblivion and is estranged from his family and friends. He's consumed by a self-loathing all too common for closeted men who have grown up in a world of hate and shame.

But then Jack returns to his regional hometown of Geraldton for a family wedding. He hasn't been back since he fled at the age of eighteen, and his past soon catches up with him.

Turns out Jack's deeply conservative Italian family would prefer he remained in the closet. Then he finds out he may have conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend, and now Jack needs to convince her and her new husband that he's fit to be a father figure. And whatever happened to Xavier, the former schoolmate who Jack was in love with and whose rejection spurred him to leave Geraldton in the first place?

Is Jack doomed to live a dead-end life – or can he open himself up to the possibility of love, found family and connection? A gritty and heartfelt gay coming-of-age story set in the world of FIFO workers and tradies in Western Australia, from the author of the bestselling Invisible Boys. Holden Sheppard is an award-winning author born in Geraldton, Western Australia. His debut novel, Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press, 2019), was published to both critical and commercial success. It won multiple accolades, including the WA Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer, and was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Invisible Boys has now been adapted as a television series, to be released by Stan in 2025. Holden's second novel The Brink was published by Text in 2022 and was the winner of both the YA category at the Indie Book Awards and the Ena Noël Award. Holden now lives in Perth's far north, with his husband and his V8 ute.