Tight Lines

I never meant to get so drunk. Each time it happened I swore it would be the last time and the next time I had a drink I believed that I could chug it down and it’d somehow end different …

Luke, Josh and Matty live for the summer: surfing, fishing and drinking. When Millie joins their crew, life feels even sweeter. But, like the wild coast they call home, where the tide can change from safe to catastrophic in an instant, one decision irrevocably changes the lives of all involved.

In their twenties, they try to recapture the freedom they took for granted when they were young. But they are not the same people and there is no going back.

Set against the nostalgic backdrop of small-town coastal life in the 2000s, Tight Lines is a moving, transformational novel that explores the sometimes devastating consequences of our choices – and how, with hope and friendship, we can keep on living anyway.

About the Author

Allee Richards' short fiction has been published widely in Australian literary magazines and anthologies. Her debut novel, Small Joys of Real Life, was shortlisted for the 2019 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers and the 2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her second novel, A Light in the Dark, was published in 2023. Allee lives in Melbourne and works as a theatre lighting technician.