Owen Marshall's gentle style gives his characters all that's needed. Photo / Bruce Nicholson
Owen Marshall's gentle style gives his characters all that's needed. Photo / Bruce Nicholson

Carnival Sky is, in part, about a midlife crisis, albeit a very muted one; it's also about loss and family, grief and, most of all, it's about letting go.
The action opens with our protagonist, Sheff, a dissatisfied chief reporter on a major metropolitan daily, making the big call to leave his cosy newspaper job, his media cronies and the endless grind, without any clear idea of where he's going.

 At 43, with some impressive awards behind him, he's had enough of arguing what constitutes the day's big stories - certainly not leading with the tale of a disembowelled pregnant llama - but, as he's constantly reminded, a newspaper's first job is to stay in business and, if that means pandering to tabloid tastes, so be it. And when he's reminded for the umpteenth time that his own opinions diverge from the popular public appetite, he decides to hand in his notice and travel the world.
His wife is living with someone else, the death of their baby having driven them apart, and he's ripe for reinvention. But Warwick, Sheff's dear but distant father, an accountant who lives in Alexandra, is dying of cancer.

 And, like a good stew, all the ingredients are assembled for a hearty story about what it is to be a son, a brother and a man, a man who is no longer a husband nor a father.
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