Shifts in tone, setting and narration create a sense of the uncanny in Kinsella's haunting collection of stories Beam of Light. A man is disturbed by the sight of a familiar dining table and chairs atop an impending bonfire of bulldozed trees, a girl finds a fox skeleton and feels compelled to protect its spirit by dispersing its bones over the valley, a couple are invited to dinner by Christians new to town - an occasion that quickly turns heavy and strange, two men awkwardly meet again when their daughters attend the same ballet class, and a man and woman struggle to balance the threats of addiction and poverty with the joys and hopes of a new baby. Stories range in location from Ireland to Germany to Greece, but it is Kinsella's characters so often on the edge, and the Australian countryside - threatened by catastrophic heat, land clearing, housing estates and strip malls- that sear the consciousness. Praise for John Kinsella's Writing'The stories never forget they were written on land with history; Aboriginal land that was stolen, and the blood that was shed, and the skin of colonisation over a deep past.' Rachel Watts, Westerly 'Impressively skilful and incisively wise.' Riley Faulds, Plumwood Mountain Journal 'What they all have in common is depth of characterisation most commonly found in a full-length novel.' Erich Mayer, Arts Hub