Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Brendan Colley, Transit Lounge, $29.99.
Every now and then, there’s a need for us to see the world in a different way. Brendan Colley helps us do just that.
With their parents now having passed away, brothers Geo and Wes are testing their relationship. Geo and Wes rarely agree on anything, especially not the sale of the Hobart family home. Geo needs the money to finance his musical career in Italy. For Wes the house represents the memory of their father, and what it means to live an honest, working life.
The brothers are on two very different tracks, one with an unfulfilled dream, the other with a dream in tatters.
Geo, a professional musician, returns to Tasmania from an extended stay in Europe, carrying with him more than just his viola case and rucksack. He had fled town in the wake of his mother’s death, and coming to terms with his estranged father’s passing in the interim. He arrives back in the family home with the intention of selling it, and using his half of the profits to pursue his musical dreams.
Wes is a police detective, following in his father’s footsteps. His life has been slowly untangling since his father’s death. For him, the house is a sanctuary what with his marriage failing, and his career on the rocks. The family home is the last connection to a past in which he had constancy, drive and routine.
It seems like everyone is chasing their dreams of love and acceptance or are they running from the truth?
Then, of course, there’s a ghost train that appears in Hobart, often on the tram tracks that once existed, along with the Swedish man who has been pursuing it for 40 years.
It’s like being transported into a world where a fine line splits realism and make-believe. It feels strange, yet wholly natural. The far-fetched becomes the total norm.
