In Sunshine Or In Shadow

'Men gotta tell their stories. Too many men runnin' round with hurt little boys inside.'

As a young man growing up in Tasmania, the fourth of six children, Martin Flanagan was confronted by the great absence of his past. Although his island home bore the imprint of a dramatic history, it held no memory of either Flanagan's Irish convict forebears or the indigenous Australians before them. The sum of the parts didn't add up to a whole.

Over twenty-five years, Flanagan's deeply personal search into the place he was from took him to the other side of the world and through different parts of Australia, meeting characters who helped him to understand better not only the tragic history of his homeland but its impact on five generations of his family and, through that, its impact on himself.

'In Sunshine Or In Shadow' is an utterly unique exploration of what it is to find home, and to belong. Warm, humorous and full of heart, it is one of the most original and uplifting works of non-fiction in recent years.