The Incredible Here and Now by Felicity Castagna

JUDGES' COMMENTS

The Incredible Here and Now might be a book about the demonized and the stereotyped, about powerlessness and the hidden injuries of class. It might be a book about protest masculinity and the senseless, foolish, sometimes dangerous things young men do to compensate for the experience of marginalization. It might be a book about death and grief, or a book about the excruciating and exhilarating awkwardness of first love. In fact, The Incredible Here and Now is about all these things.

In the summer he turns 15, Michael’s world threatens to implode when his ‘invincible’ older brother dies. Grief-stricken, bored, aimless and confused, Michael seeks refuge in the streets, sites and people of his home, Western Sydney. It would have been easy to stray into melodrama or sentimentality, but The Incredible Here and Now pulls back just enough to allow Castagna to deliver a confident and well-controlled story. Elegantly crafted as a series of vignettes, Castagna’s writing is bold, compassionate and visceral. Her characters are real and flawed, and linger long after one has turned the final page. But it is Western Sydney that perhaps leaves the most memorable impression on the reader. Vividly portrayed – ‘an everywhere-people kind of place’ – Castagna humanizes a place where ‘those who don’t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their doors’. It is in the West where Michael ultimately finds hope, resilience and love, learning that ‘you can’t go back. There’s only moving forward’.