‘Borne by a moonlit angel her voice circled the night.’

Perth, Australia, 1974. Young marrieds, Ross and June, attend a Joan Baez concert. Absent from the Old Men’s Home, Baxter Moncur is in the audience. Despite their age difference, Ross and Baxter have much in common. Personal insecurities. Confronting love stories. Testing family dynamics. And an unceasing struggle to reconcile past circumstances with present realities.

Enter Simone Passeri, a social worker undertaking a research project. Above and beyond the scope of her work, Simone embarks on a search. A self-confessed failure at Relationships 101, she casts off the conventional social worker image and takes us on an unconventional ride. In her own words: ‘Very seventies, actually.’

Set in an era of personal and political change, Absence Makes is a rich journey of aspiration, despair, experiment and discovery.

About the Author

In his debut novel Bruce Menzies explores themes of love and loss, and 'the magic of hope’. Poignant and funny, Absence Makes, will touch chords in those who can reflect on the dreams of youth and the challenges that inevitably emerge.

Bruce Menzies was born in Subiaco, Western Australia. After scraping through a law degree, he moved to Canberra for a stint in the Public Service, highlighted by three years in Germany. In the seventies, he graduated to an Indian ashram. Returning to Perth and later to Denmark, an idyllic hamlet on the south-coast, he morphed from a lawyer into a mediator.

He has written a magazine column, as well as semi-serious articles on relationships, gender, gurus, and other taxing topics.