The Invisible Rider

This delightful collection of linked short stories focuses on Philip Fetch, a lawyer with an office in a suburban shopping mall who feels increasingly out of step with his society and neighbours. At once surreal and whimsical, and fired by a quietly burning moral engagement, THE INVISIBLE RIDER is an antipodean cousin of Calvino's Marcovaldo. [McDougall] captures the absurdist state of motherhood - the battle between biscuits and principles. From the foul-mouthed four-year-old taking thirty-six hours and a knife to come out to the maniac with a hygiene fetish, the details are droll and true, and the story ends where a preschooler's logic might lead you. - Sarah Laing, The NZ Listener.