Plum

By: Brendan Cowell

Narrated by: Brendan Cowell

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The wildly impressive, raucously funny, and deeply moving second novel from award-winning writer, actor, and director for television, theater, and film Brendan Cowell, confirming the talent he showed in his best-selling debut novel from 2010, How It Feels.

Peter "The Plum" Lum is a 49-year-old ex-star NRL player, living with his son and girlfriend in Cronulla. He's living a pretty cruisey life until one day he suffers an epileptic fit and discovers that he has a brain disorder as a result of the thousand-odd head knocks he took on the footy field in his 20-year career. According to his neurologist, Plum has to make some changes - right now - or it's dementia, or even death.

Reluctantly, Plum embarks on a journey of self-care and self-discovery, which is not so easy when all you've ever known is to go full tilt at everything. On top of this, he's being haunted by dead poets, and, unable to stop crying, discovers he has a special gift for the spoken word. With spectral visits from Bukowski and Plath, the friendship of local misfits, and the prospect of new love, Plum might just save his own life.

From award-winning writer, director, and actor Brendan Cowell, Plum is a powerfully moving, authentic, big-hearted, angry, and joyous novel of men, their inarticulate pain, and what it takes for them to save themselves - from themselves. It's got a roaring energy, a raucous humor, a heart of gold, and a poetic soul.

©2021 Brendan Cowell (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Exploring masculinity and the healing power of language with great humour, grace and whimsy, Plum is a bighearted, raw and joyous take on what it means to be a man in modern Australia." (Sunday Times)

"The audacious inclusion of literary outlaws ... the muscular viscerality of his language ... [Plum is] a Shire pastoral that yearns for a nostalgia fantasy of The Golden Days ... I wonder whether Plath was inspired by the great Peter Lum. Or if Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass observing a spear of summer grass while sitting in Shark Park one lonely Sunday afternoon." (Sydney Morning Herald)

You’re the best!

The performance of Plum is the best! The audiobook is fantastic! How did you do it? Well done Brandon Cowell!