Simpson Returns

'Macauley's novels are consistently savage critiques of Australian middle class delusions, and Simpson Returns is no exception. He brings considerable depth to his portrayal of our social fragility and the destructive all-pervasive darkness underneath. Simpson reflects at one point: There is always a certain amount of self-deceit necessary for the healthy maintenance of a society hell-bent on proving the sun shines out of its arse. A must read.' * Booknotes * `Macauley is a mean satirist with a gift for finding the queasy depths in apparently soft targets...Together, these characters form a mosaic of desperation, inequality and sometimes gendered violence...At the end of the novel...we're asking questions specific to this story, about how compassion works and what it really is. It's an unusual renewal of an ordinary myth, not always simple to interpret.' * Saturday Paper * `He makes readers feel uncomfortable, unsettled in the everyday; one emerges from his books freshly uncertain.' * Lifted Brow * `Macauley has published some of the most memorable fiction going in this country.' * Age * `Wayne Macauley is an Australian original.' * Saturday Paper * `Macauley's use of an other-worldly narrative to bring real-world problems into focus is probably one of Simpson Returns' greatest strengths...[It] becomes a fitting analogy for the particularly cruel Australia in which we currently live. Macauley's novella has the sheen of a comedy, but it should also be given credit for being so uncomfortably sad.' * Readings Monthly *