The first tale in Kinsella’s new short story anthology titled Pushing Back is one of the best things I have read in a good while.

 Having kittens dives into issues of parenthood, mental health, and male expectations in Australia quite brilliantly. 

The story, set near Canning River, deconstructs the mind of an ex-soldier and former footy player, now a post-apprenticeship mechanic from the hills, and his underlying sense of uneasiness around Perth suburbia. 

Kinsella’s brilliant metaphors and subtle descriptions paint a most vivid picture of what it means to be a young man in Australia. Cruelty in a male-dominant workplace leads the protagonist into action whilst dealing with the contrast of city life for someone who was born and raised out bush, up in the hills. 

 To reveal more than that would be to ruin your reading experience.