Demons
Wayne Macauley
They were going to tell stories. Let’s go away for the weekend, said Megan, and leave our phones behind and turn off the computers and television and stop time because time is moving too fast and soon we’ll all be saying where the hell did our lives go? We’ll cook some food and drink some wine and each tell a story.
It is the middle of winter. Seven friends travel to a remote coastal beach house for the weekend. Without phones, internet or television, they sit around the fireplace, telling stories – each exposing the foibles of humankind. But as a storm rolls in and torrential rain cuts the party off from the outside world, it soon becomes clear that some secrets are best kept hidden.
Demons is an extraordinary novel by one of Australia’s great writers.
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‘Macauley has ingeniously refurbished an old tale to capture the perplexing vacuity of a generation…a fierce and uncomfortable novel about contemporary Australian life that drives us to ask why we are who we are, as it simultaneously makes us wish we were better.’
‘Absorbing’
‘Brilliant, thought-provoking.’
‘Absorbing, thought-provoking and altogether quite brilliant.’
‘The novel [has] the potential to resonate with Australians in the same way as Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap, only it’s darker and more complex.’
‘Demons is a compelling, can’t-put-it-down book. Not because of any thrilling action, but because of its ordinary, troubled characters, their ordinary everyday struggles and the stories they tell. In a way the novel is like a collection of short stories, although every one of them leads us to understand more about the teller and the listeners as they start to hit uncomfortably close to home. Each story and how it is told offers fascinating insight into human nature in a humorous, yet sharp critique of contemporary society and its many flaws.’
‘The pace is headlong; the disintegration relentless. Startling, discomforting, and not likely to be underrated.’
‘Macauley imbues the shenanigans with just the right touch of satire and his social observations are spot on. More, please.’
