White Turtle (collection of short stories)
Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, 1999
De La Salle University Press, Manila, 2000
The Kissing. aunt lute books, San Francisco, 2001

Gingered chicken in green papayas, smothered with coconut milk, never fails to keep the tongue moist long after the meal is over. So does slightly burnt sugar lodged at the roof of the mouth, melting with infinite slowness —

An anomalous kiss. A white turtle ferrying the dreams of the dead. A working siesta in a five-star hotel. A woman’s twelve metre-hair trawling corpses from a river. Or a queue of longings in Darlinghurst. These enigmatic tales of chance and hope are among twenty-three stories set in the Philippines and Australia. Alternately mythic, wistful or quirky, Merlinda Bobis’ tales resonate with an original and confident storytelling voice.