I woke before the act of it. I knelt in the blackened bath and rinsed and scrubbed in cold water. Drying off I heard knocking at the back door. I hurried down the hall to the bedroom window, peeped around the edge of the blind, panicking that it was Tilda knocking.

It was Vigourman. He was looking up at the windows for signs of life. I let the blind fall shut until the knocking finished. I went to my nook.

Honesty box, help me. I must hurry and leave. I’ve got to leave. The future is pulling me. I don’t know where. What’s keeping me? Guilt? A final check of my soul to make sure all love for Tilda has gone?

Does all love ever go, or only the people?

I don’t know.

I once fell in love with a woman named Tilda. Beyond that, I don’t know much about anything.

Praise

PRAISE FOR THE AMATEUR SCIENCE OF LOVE

‘All women with lingering illusions about the way men think should read this fast-moving, sharply focused, fantasy shattering little thunderclap of a book.’ Helen Garner

‘Sherborne writes so well that he cannot fail to include colour in the darkness… This is a masterful portrait.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Fascinating, funny and unputdownable.’ Sunday Herald Sun

‘Poignant… Little can prepare us for this fine novel’s “heartwrecking puzzle”.’ Weekly Times

‘Absorbing… I can’t fault this book—the characters are solid and believable, the storyline unpredictable and the rural Australian imagery vivid.’ Books+Publishing

 PRAISE FOR CRAIG SHERBORNE’S MEMOIRS HOI POLLOI AND MUCK

‘One of nature’s writers.’ Peter Craven

‘Gruesomely honest and very, very funny.’ Hilary Mantel

‘Mordantly true to life… one of the most interesting autobiographical projects on the go.’ J. M. Coetzee

‘He writes beautifully, especially when the material is not beautiful at all. He can make the cruel truth poetic.’ Clive James

‘Riveting… Moral courage has propelled this book to the page. Its execution is sublime.’ Scotsman

About the author

Craig Sherborne’s memoir Hoi Polloi (2005) was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. The follow-up, Muck (2007), won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. His first novel, The Amateur Science of Love (2011), won the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Tree Palace, his latest novel, will be published in 2014. Craig has also written two volumes of poetry, Bullion (1995) and Necessary Evil (2005), and a verse drama, Look at Everything Twice for Me (1999). His writing has appeared in most of Australia’s literary journals and anthologies. He lives in Melbourne.

Copyright

Imprint

textpublishing.com.au

The Text Publishing Company

Swann House

22 William Street

Melbourne Victoria 3000

Australia

Copyright © Craig Sherborne 2011

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

First published in 2011 by The Text Publishing Company

This edition published 2014

Cover illustration and design by WH Chong

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Author: Sherborne, Craig, 1952-

Title: The amateur science of love / Craig Sherborne.

ISBN: 9781922147776 (pbk.)

Dewey Number: A823.4

Ebook ISBN: 9781921834264