This is a novel for those who never risk more than a cappuccino and Death by Chocolate at their local café. Or for those who’d rather knit while Rome burns. Or those who’d rent a concert hall to perform their own concerto — if they could ever write beyond the first measure. Or those born to win Silk at the Bar. Or those who just dream of women with buck teeth and brown eyes…

David P Reiter’s fiction will also help you recall the thrill of reading before the grey veil of “theory” clouded the minds of so many contemporary authors. The satiric lash he applies in his award-winning collection Triangles is refined here, and no group — least of all writers — is immune from scrutiny.

As the title suggests, this is a work about love in its many shades. It says as much about what love is not and about the importance of fantasy and uncertainty in maintaining the quest for happiness long after the societal rituals are played out. Love is not safe in the long term or even stable. It is a road of sudden curves and broken pavement where our brakes may fail at any time. But we wouldn’t miss the ride for anything!

David P Reiter was influenced by Robert Frost’s advice that literature should ‘begin with delight and end in wisdom’. The sub-text is there for those who seek it.

He is particularly interested in the “battle of the sexes” as it’s been compounded by the rise of feminism. ‘We have women afraid to be women, and men afraid to be men,’ he says. ‘In the midst of all this, children happen, and the noose tightens. The only way to stay sane is to learn to laugh at the absurdity of trying to make sense of it all. The best satire does that — if only people are willing to listen.’

As well as renewing his commitment to fiction here, David Reiter continues to write poetry and literary multimedia from his base in Brisbane, Australia, where he lives with his wife Cherie and their children Siobhan and Alexander, doing his best to exceed the prospects of his fictional characters.