The Red Light Starts Blinking

by Jonathon Kane

Jonathon Kane’s debut collection of short experimental fiction, equally hard-faced and tender, follows characters searching for a way forward or back or around—some direction, any direction.

Against the backdrop of Australia’s simultaneously lush and desolate Blue Mountains, a series of men are set adrift. Displaced and in unfamiliar lands, always only passing through, they seek missing spouses, missing children, and missing limbs while searching for a way forward or back or around—some direction, any direction.

A transient odd-jobber takes a gardener position at a retirement home. A curiously named member of a mysterious network of Sensitives does calisthenics through an interrogation. A recluse contends with their deceased father’s missives scrawled in white chalk around a black-painted garage. A man momentarily hosts his estranged grandfather, halfway around the world. The unreliable characters slip in and out of one another’s stories, stitching together their self-whittled worldviews in almost undetectable ways. Connections are made and lost amid whispers and glimpses. Alienation and absence abound.

Less a collection of short stories and more a set of interlocking teeth, The Red Light Starts Blinking explores the vicious gut-punches and tender-to-the-touch moments of modern life as felt from the fringes. Fragmentary and with significant gaps, the stories play with form and narrative while inviting the reader to a disquieting game of emotional roulette. As one character puts it: disturbed? deranged? delighted? The red light is on—only an attempt at entanglement will tell.

261 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2025

Reviews

[scrunchielover42 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Local woman’s soul has been replenished. Banger of a book 💥

[Angie Spoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully strange book filled with images that really stick with you - the author slowly builds a fascinating world that is both vivid and slippery. This is the sort of book I'd recommend if you're happy to go along for the ride and don't mind being at time confused or uncertain. Read for the vibes and the characters, not the 'plot'.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this literary age where commercial fiction dominates the publishing industry, Jonathan Kane reminds us what truly creative writing can produce. There is a poetic element to his use of language. His storyline is intimate and thought provoking. A very enjoyable and intriguing read. Look for more of this interesting type of literature from the publisher, Diachroneity Books.

[Tree Dweller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impossible to put down. Reads like a fever dream that you simultaneously want to wake up from and stay in forever.