The Shag Incident

In the mid-1980s a group of women decide that Howard Shag, a former All Black, bestselling writer and national icon, is a rapist, and take matters into their own hands. Nearly twenty years later the consequences reach people who seem to have nothing to do with it: Jasper, Shag's onetime protégé, held in a Sydney prison before his trial; his mother Lena, once a radical feminist, now living on Waiheke Island; his estranged father Richard, a hard-drinking journalist; Franca, a Sydney psychiatrist whose field is suicide; and Melody, a rugby fan writing Shag's biography. As their stories come together, a deception behind the original act comes to light. The comedy takes aim at macho rugby culture, radical feminism, New Age ritual and psychiatry.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Satire (assigned by AI)

Set in

New Zealand, Australia, 1980s–2000s

First published

2002

Author's age

41 when first published

ISBN

9781869415013 (Vintage, New Zealand)