Out of the Line of Fire

`A dazzling debut. A tour de force. This book is imaginative, virtuosic, and awesomely assured. It is compulsive reading.' -- Don Anderson
`Experimental, extraordinary...Out of the Line of Fire, published in 1988, remains one of my favourite Australian novels.' -- Stephen Romei * Australian *
`An Australian writer heads to Germany, where he gets strong doses of philosophy, violence, taboo sex, and unreliable narration...The novel feels like an id laid bare, and Henshaw keeps the story in line while constantly pointing out the limitations of words to capture reality. A remarkable and brainy work of metafiction.' * STARRED Review, Kirkus *
`A clever and playful text, offering both a decent story that includes quite a few sordid episodes and behaviour as well as lofty (but accessible) literary and philosophical speculation, and more than a few mysteries...It's an interesting take on the literary-philosophical novel, with a deceptively light writing touch that differentiates it from most continental novels playing with similar tricks. The scenes, the asides, and the speculation are, both separately and together, good (if sometimes somewhat creepy) fun, and Out of the Line of Fire is a smart and smartly twisted novel.' * Complete Review *