Homebush Boy by Tom Keneally

Homebush Boy

by Tom Keneally

Minerva, 1995, ISBN 1863305025, paperback with wraps

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, age toned pages (see photographs)

“In the suburbs of Sydney in 1952, few might have predicted international renown for the red-haired teenager sporting a cowlick (held in place with a gluey, white concoction called Fix-a-Flex) and a breast pocket misshapen by a fat volume of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems.
At sixteen, Tom Keneally had visions of following in his hero’s footsteps as a poet, though he thought he might draw the line at emulating his other hero Chatterton’s early suicide.  He had visions, too, of triumphing on the running track or rugby field, though he recognised that his blind friend Matt Tierney had greater natural athleticism.  And then he had visions of winning the heart of the beautiful but aloof Bernadette Curran.  The one role he did not see himself playing was priest, despite the encouragement of the Brothers at his Catholic school.  Until the momentous day when Bernadette announced her intention of becoming a nun.”