How it feels

"I had no idea how free we were. That's how free I was."An old friend, a best friend, a first love and the dreamer Neil Cronk who connects them all...“How It Feels is a lacerating, blackly comic novel about the suburban masculine psyche; but it also extends a warmth and understanding to contemporary society that confronted my prejudices and forced me to look at the world anew. Cowell’s voice is truthful, without any condescension... urgent, challenging and humane.” - Christos TsiolkasFour schoolfriends are on the verge of adulthood and the next 12 hours will change the course of their lives... Friendships will be broken, virginity lost, love unleashed and secrets buried. A decade later, one is dead, one is famous, two are getting married, and the truth is about to erupt.Wildly funny, brutal, tender and true, How It Feels is a coming-of-age story set in Sydney's Sutherland Shire with stopovers in Bathurst and London. Brendan Cowell's electrifying debut novel is a devastating ode to youth, capturing the beauty of growing up by the beach, and the darkness which moves beneath its surface.Because this is how it feels."If Christos Tsiolkas opened the door on the real inner lives of men with his confronting and controversial 2008 novel The Slap... Brendan Cowell practically gives us X-rays in his debut novel How It Feels... Like Tsiolkas, Cowell has a fascination with both his own masculinity and masculinity in general. At times the book... feels like a thinly disguised memoir." - Ian Cuthbertson, AustralianBrendan Cowell is an Australian actor, screenwriter and director. He won the Patrick White Playwrights Award for his third play Bed. Brendan played the enigmatic Tom in Love My Way, as well as writing several episodes of the Logie Award-winning and critically acclaimed Australian television drama series, which also won the AFI award for Best Television Drama Series for each of its three seasons (2005-2007). "I had no idea how free we were. That's how free I was." An old friend, a best friend, a first love and the dreamer Neil Cronk who connects them all... Four schoolfriends are on the verge of adulthood and the next 12 hours will change the course of their lives... Friendships will be broken, virginity lost, love unleashed and secrets buried. A decade later, one is dead, one is famous, two are getting married, and the truth is about to erupt. Wildly funny, brutal, tender and true, How It Feels is a coming-of-age story set in Sydney's Sutherland Shire with stopovers in Bathurst and London. Brendan Cowell's electrifying debut novel is a devastating ode to youth, capturing the beauty of growing up by the beach, and the darkness which moves beneath its surface. Because this is how it feels.