The Grass Hotel

Carry me, son. Do not leave me behind.Are you listening to me?Of course you're listening, you say, and add the F-word. Off you go to cope with a storm. Lucerne armfuls for horses. For cows, plain hay.

Alone in the paddocks of his grass hotel a man tends to his beloved horses, Sock and Boy. The voice of his mother—accusatory, fragmenting from dementia—haunts his every move, an excoriating reminder of his failures in the world of people.

The Grass Hotel is a story of damage and repair, of familial obligation and the resentments it can cause. It is also about the profound comfort that a connection with animals can offer.

With its extraordinary use of language, Craig Sherborne's novel is by turns savage and tender, raw and poetic: a small masterpiece.

Craig Sherborne's memoir Hoi Polloi was shortlisted for the Queensland and Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. The follow-up, Muck, won the Queensland Literary Award for...