Maps of Small Countries

Memoir and celebration, meditation and exploration, sketches and simple vignette, these are some of the varied fields through which Russell Erwin takes his readers in this latest collection, which bears the hallmarks of his earlier work – an attention to the physical, sensual world, unsurprising in one who makes his living by farming in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, a muscularity of language and a fondness for the striking image. But here it seems is a more assured handling of material, a...