Hardly Beach Weather

Ex-boyfriend Jack drives his ex-girlfriend from Sydney to Adelaide, Australia. Maria is going to Adelaide to meet up with her new boyfriend. Jack offers her a lift because their former love relationship is now improperly defined.

"Hardly Beach Weather" is a road novel of unremitting Austalianness: the sheep in the tucker bag, the lone woman watching for snakes, mutual misinterpretations of city and bush. Along the way, Jack and Maria are assaulted by stories of love and heartbreak told by strangers in every country town, by shopkeepers, drinkers, hitchhikers; these are the tales which bust through motel walls, interrupt the radio cricket and endlessly remind Jack of his and Maria's failures and shortcomings.

Despite all evidence, Jack maintains hope - and Maria is very, very patient.