Blues for Serge: Stories

This, the third book of stories is not tied to any particular underlying theme, unlike in the first, Carrot Boy, where the stories are set exclusively in New Zealand, and the second, The Dravidian Circle, where the focus is entirely international. Instead, the stories in this book cover a range of fictionalized locations and themes, the only linking factor being some form of travel, whether it is geographical, or merely through the imagination of the protagonist. In this volume, for example, in the title story, Blues for Serge, a homage to a lost friend, we travel across continents and the span of a lifetime. Yet another story, Twenty-forty Eight lets us travel ahead in time, while Putting An End To It All is an alternative spin and implicit commentary on the contemporary world, traveling sideways, as it were, through history. Other stories have more familiar settings, some in New Zealand and some to overseas locations including America, all reimagining events from the immediate past or near future.