voice / Peter Cowan -- A rat in the building / Olga Masters -- Five acre virgin. Frederick the Great returns to Fairfields / Elizabeth Jolley -- The cost of things / Elizabeth Harrower -- The meeting / Shirley Hazzard -- Hostages / Fay Zwicky -- The sun in winter / David Malouf -- From a bush log book: going into the heartlands with the wrong person at Christmas. Libido and life lessons / Frank Moorhouse -- The only Adam / Gerlad Murnane -- Melpo. A man in the laundrette / Beverly Farmer -- The life of art. What we say / Helen Garner -- The sybarites. The man of slow feeling / Michael Wilding -- American dreams. 'Do you love me?' / Peter Carey -- Fires on the beach / Barry Hill -- Summer in Sydney / Barbara Brooks -- New year / Joan London -- Slow dissolve / Kate Grenville -- John Gilbert's dog / David Brooks.

First pub. 1988. Includes a provocative selection of post-war generation. Australian writers.