‘It wasn’t for the ordinary to ponder the extraordinary; there was enough to do to wrestle with the everyday’.
 
Doing Life in Paradise explores the impact and ripple effect of trauma on a group of strangers inextricably linked by, and witness to a tragic accident.
 
The novel is a surreal voyeuristic journey into the minds and lies of its larger than life characters, each trapped in their own struggle for survival and redemption.    Ruby hopes for love, but her destiny is controlled by a malicious spider.  Peter laments the loss of love, but prefers to discuss it with Mr Dishwasher.  Madeleine discovers rapture while counting down her periods.  Hawkey knows if you lie to your psychologist, you are still telling the truth.  Tommy is a killer.  And Flat 5 lady is beyond saving. 
 
Through the eyes of its flawed characters, and clipped acerbic prose Doing Life in Paradise exposes the absurdity of life, and dependence on hope to find meaning within life’s disinterest.  But how can life in a city called Paradise feel anything but cruelly ironic, how can it not be anything but a life sentence?
 
The novel explores the peculiar places life can take us, while exposing the curious strategies we each employ in order to survive. 
 
“…hyper-literate and intellectually nimble.”
— Kerryn Goldsworthy