The Long Road Of The Junkmailer

A lonely junkmailer, his bag full of real estate leaflets, wanders the streets of a sleeping, subtropical city. Accompanied by a host of bizarre companions he is led on a quixote journey through the night time streets.

A novel about horse thieves, broken promises, love and regret. Patrick Holland captures the fragility and grace of small town life and how one fateful moment can forever alter the course of our lives.

Australian short fiction is where the action is- outward-looking, exciting, filled with surprises and joyful life. - Delia Falconer In The Best Australian Stories 2008, Delia Falconer brings together the year's most exciting short fiction. Featuring established masters as well as fresh new voices, this is a perfect book for summer and an ideal introduction to Australia's best contemporary writing. 'As a reader,' Delia Falconer writes, 'I crave what the short story is most suited to deliver- a glimpse into the unpredictability of life, a quick burst of tone and voice, a bittersweet balance of surprising layers.' By turns global and domestic, subversively funny and wrenchingly sad, this year's Best Australian Stories delivers this, and more. Contributors include- Nam Le, Robert Drewe, Emily Ballou, Nicholas Shakespeare, Bernard Cohen, Frank Moorhouse, Marion Halligan, Brenda Walker, plus many more.

Arriving late in Kyoto Patrick Holland cannot find a room for the night. Homeless and disorientated and in a place where loitering is not encouraged his only solution is to ride the trains. The train journey is the starting point for a book that also describes travels through Vietnam, mountains in the Chinese Himalaya, lost cities of the Silk Road, mist-swathed cemeteries in Japan and the flat plains of Australia.