The short story is one of the more difficult forms of writing to master. Much has been made of its resurgence in recent years. Australian writers have fared better than most in this arena, with Cate Kennedy, Paddy O’Reilly, Steven Amsterdam and Nam Le setting the bar extremely high. Inevitably, any new collection will be compared to those of such adepts, and invariably, many will fall short. Stinson’s collection highlights the gap between the upper echelon of short form writing and the mass of also-rans.

The potential shown in ‘All Fathers the Father’ has unfortunately not been translated into a cohesive collection. Apart from two long pieces, the fourteen tales in Known Unknowns are slight and lacking in depth and resonance. Pieces such as ‘Dry’, in which a bored man goes to the pub, require a masterful touch to be memorable. Sadly, this is not evident here. Of greater concern is the feeling that many of these stories have not been sufficiently drafted, rendering them ineffective and forgettable. This is a disappointing collection from a writer of promise.