Stories for Boys - Hunter Barry Stewart

I guess we all want to be heroes, don't we? So suggests Darren, the helplessly self-aware protagonist of the title story in this landmark collection, before going on to challenge the validity of his own assertion in the courts of failure and regret.

First published almost two decades ago and destined today for cult or classic status, the ten tales revisited here range with startling ambition and precocious authority across lives, loves, losses and landscapes.

Original and irreducible, they introduce several of the author's key motifs, including what it means to be a man, what it takes to be good, and what it costs to be human.