Caravan Thieves

Most of these vivid and unsettling stories are rooted in apparently everyday lives and situations, but suddenly become surreal or disturbing. Reading them feels as though you’re walking along in the real world and suddenly you step off an edge into a void, where rules of gravity and normality have disappeared but life carries on. Full of Woodward’s trademark mix of humour, pathos, dysfunctional families and disappointed lives, they contain also dazzling moments of illumination, perfect imagery and intimations of mortality.The title comes from the story “Rape,” where a caravan (a nice Fleetwood Marauder) seems to have been lifted from its regular berth at Glenmore Caravan Park in the middle of the night to land with its occupants in a field in the middle of nowhere — which leads to unaccustomed and violent fantasies.