Fathers and Sons

Howard Cunnell Press Reviews

'There is so much aching love in this book, such pain and beauty. Behold, and rejoice' -- Tim Winton, author of Cloudstreet

'This book tells the story of how family is made. It tells it frankly, unexpectedly and in such a way that both family and expectations are rewritten and renewed. I couldn't put it down. Bold, brave, beautiful - much more than biology. This is life itself.' -- Jackie Kay, author of Red Dust Road

'A miracle of a book: sad, wise, strong and hopeful, its depiction of parenthood will stay with me for a long time' -- Sunjeev Sahota, author of The Year of the Runaways

'Fathers and Sons is a beautiful, moving, and marvellously honest book. I relished its resolutely masculine point of view, especially on such a subject, and the tenderness and sensuality with which Cunnell depicts child-rearing.' -- Kate Clanchy, author of Antigona and Me

'With Fathers & Sons, Howard Cunnell rips himself apart and reminds us what true artists do with all the mistakes they've ever made. They turn them into art. Dazzling and memorable, here is a strong and moving mosaic depicting the wayward mystery of our souls' -- Austin Collings, author of The Myth of Brilliant Summers

'Howard Cunnell has forged from the most painful of raw materials a modern masterpiece of fiction... The lonelieness of a boy who never knew his father, Jason, who in turn became a father to Jay, a boy trapped in the wrong female body. Their journeys are rendered in prose as exquisite as the spaces of sea, sun and freedom Cunnell always chased for salvation and worked so hard to describe, finally finding himself and that redemption in the gift that was denied to him: being a father to a son' -- Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo