The Book of Emmett

Emmett Brown is a thwarted romantic who loves drink and the blues and is obsessed with 'the System', his scheme to beat the odds of lotteries and racehorses. When the numbers fail him he turns on the family with fists and unpredictable temper, though he can be tender too. In Footscray, among ramshackle weatherboards and stifling summers, Louisa, Rob, Peter, Daniel and Jessie take cover in the hedges down the street until the storms pass, and the bonds they form there are strong and complicated. As they grow up and leave home, each has to come to terms with what his rage did to them and try to get out from under him.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, Menzies era

First published

2009

ISBN

9781741667868 (Vintage Australia, Australia)