Secret Lives of Men

By Georgia Blain

In these 13 short stories, Georgia Blain examines human nature in all its richness: our motivations, our desires, and our shortcomings. The men in these tales frequently linger at the edges—their longings and failures exerting a subterranean pull on the women in their lives. In the title story, a woman revisits her hometown and learns a long-held secret about her first boyfriend. In “The Bad Dog Park,” a man’s devotion to his dog ultimately forces him to confront his true hopes and fears. And in “The Other Side of the River,” we watch as a woman makes a snap decision about her life’s future direction, with devastating consequences for her family. Written in Blain’s trademark unadorned yet powerful prose, these stories resonate long after they are finished. The Secret Lives of Men is an exceptional collection by one of Australia’s leading writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd.
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781922072269

Georgia Blain

Georgia Blain published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories, and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. Her books have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the NSW, Victorian, and SA Premiers’ Literary Awards, the ALS Gold Medal, the Stella Prize, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia’s works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home, and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, Georgia published Between a Wolf and a Dog and the YA novel Special (Penguin Random House Australia). Between a Wolf and a Dog was shortlisted for the 2017 Stella Prize, and was awarded the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the 2016 University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. Georgia passed away in December 2016.

Reviews for Secret Lives of Men

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not normally a big fan of short stories, but Georgia Blain has really done a great job with these explorations of relationships between men, women and children. Nearly all of the stories seemed to me to have an Australian-ness about them, although I'd be hard pressed to point to specific features that produce that feeling...I suppose it's the familiarity of the urban and bush environments that she describes. Not all the characters were appealing to me but nonetheless I did enjoy reading about them. I found Blain's portrayal of difficult and failed relationships to be particularly insightful. I would have liked to have explored some of these situations in longer form. I'm sad that no more works are being added to the Georgia Blain catalog. Death comes unfairly early for too many people and I don't know how to understand that. Maybe I will see what Blain's end of life memoir, The Museum of Words, has to say.