This is yet another book of linked short stories (which seems to be becoming a bit of a thing lately). In these stories Shirm draws together a handful of characters living in a small (fictional) NSW town. They're almost uniformly sad stories, dealing with the disintegration of relationships, the inability to communicate with others or even understand yourself and, of course, death. The language is crisp and evocative and the stories on their own are powerful snapshots. I didn't think the linking across stories always worked - I had to flip back and forwards a few times to remember exactly how some characters had popped up before - but there were neat moments and reverberations throughout and the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. ( )

Excellent collection of short stories, by a new Australian writer. Reviewed at whisperinggums.wordpress.com: http://whisperinggums.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/gretchen-shirm-having-cried-wolf/ ( )