Thecoast and dreams of being by the water are never far away in Kinsella's surprisingstories of Australian small town life. They summon in us both longing and fearat the recollection of our own childhoods, families, friends and upbringings.Flight is a possibility. A boy builds a rocket from 44-gallon drums and packingcases, a lone farmer travels to London to glimpse the snow his late mother oncespoke of, inseparable mates relocate to the inner city. But the elementalmystery of place, of the country, of the sea, invariably draws them back.