Matt Nable may be a filmmaker, an actor, a novelist; but at first, he wanted to be a career footballer. He first played in the NRL, before heading to the UK to chase his dream. His first film, The Final Winter, charted the existential challenges faced by sportsmen who find their beloved game rapidly transforming into a corporate commodity. His first published novel, We Don’t Live Here Anymore, spreads its wings further, but retains these themes of expectation and disappointment. The novel is written is a disjointed style through multiple voices. Its only first-person narrator, Charlie Hudson, is an awkward teenager who prefers his own company to that of others. Charlie’s father Leon, on the other hand, has always fought through such awkwardness in search of acceptance. Circling around the family is a slew of characters fading in and out, all with their own dreams, who must adapt and transform to meet the tragedies of economy and society. Nable employs narrative jumps which are often clever, but occasionally leave the reader behind; although some characters ring eerily true, others – like Charlie himself – remain disappointingly superficial. That said, the book deals forcefully with complex ideas, and is engaging to the very end.  - Ben