What The Ground Can't Hold

Description

Two Americans are presumed dead and nine people are trapped in a cabin after an avalanche falls in the remote Andes... Told from five points of view, What the Ground Can't Hold follows: Emma, an Australian faced with an impossible decision that could see her parents jailed. Jack, a teenager obsessed with Jack Kerouac, anti-globalism and sex. Carmen, a tango dancer whose estranged father is dying of cancer. Pedro, the cabin manager, who's in hiding from his ex-wife. And Wolfe, an American on a deadly family quest. With food supplies dwindling, these unlikely companions are forced to extremes and discover they are bound by more than their surroundings – each has a secret that links them to Argentina's Dirty War. What the Ground Can't Hold is a mesmerising debut about the ways the past closes in on the present, and shatters the foundations upon which we build our lives.

Author description

Shady Cosgrove lives in the Illawarra and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong. Her memoir She Played Elvis was shortlisted for the Australian Vogel Prize, and her short stories and articles have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Antipodes, Southerly, Overland, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.