WHAT can grow from trust and caring? Answer: the remaking of a life.
Russell Bass is a potter living on the edge of Katoomba in the NSW Blue Mountains. His wife has been dead less than a year and, although he has a few close friends, he lives a mostly solitary life.
Each month he hikes into the valley below his house to collect rock for glazes from a remote creek bed.
One autumn morning he finds a chocolate wrapper on the path. His curiosity leads him to a cave where three siblings - two young children and a teenage girl - are camped, hiding from social services and the police.
Although they bolt at first, Russell slowly gains their trust and, little by little, this unlikely group begins to form a fragile bond.
Hare's Fur, by Trevor Shearston, tells an exquisite story of grief, kindness, art and the transformation that can grow from the seeds of trust.
From Scribe Publications, RRP $27.99.
Trevor Shearston lives in Katoomba. His novel Game, about bushranger Ben Hall, was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2014.
