Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere: Satires

by Alexander Cothren

A riotous collection of ethical fever dreams from an internationally recognised master of the short form, Alex Cothren’s Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere is a book for anyone struggling to tell the difference between the news and satire.

A conspiracy theory about bees divides a nation.

A haunted pokie machine seeks revenge.

A ‘smart’ home becomes a little too clever.

Alex Cothren’s riotous collection of ethical fever dreams explores the ethos of the end times, testing the limits of technology, humanity and modern media. His predictions are incisive, hilarious and terribly plausible, tracing our contemporary obsessions to their logical – and often dire – conclusions.

Yet amid the horror are moments of hope and resistance, and possibly even a path to redemption – or at least instructions on finding a good place to hide when it all comes crashing down.

This is a book for anyone struggling to tell the difference between the news and satire. It will stop you doomscrolling and keep you guessing.

Shortlisted for the Aurelis Awards

‘Cothren’s satirical sketches use the springboard of parody to better understand the follies of vice … [and] contorts various aspects of contemporary Australia so that they are both recognisable and monstrous.’ – Jack Cameron Stanton, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘[This] debut collection of short stories is so assured, bleak and uncannily prescient that they could have been written tomorrow.’ – Steph Harmon, The Guardian

‘Sharp and well-constructed, with some great insights.’ – Sam Ryan, The Conversation

‘Like looking in the mirror at a carnival funhouse. The reflections are odd and distorted, but the subject matter is real.’ – The Australian Women’s Weekly

‘Cothren balances wit with empathy, and curiosity with caution, uniquely presented in a predominantly Australian context.’ – Tamil Ellazam, Readings

‘Cothren’s satirical-slipstream scalpels slice into contemporary anxieties – like Black Mirror , but better.’ – Sean Williams

'Each story is simultaneously unhinged and hits close to home ... if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Cothren’s satirical take on modern-day horrors feels refreshing, particularly when our overwrought social media habits and the 24-hour news cycle have left us strung out with empathy fatigue.' Books+Publishing

‘Reading Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere is like wandering into a hall of mirrors. It’s weird, it’s funny and it’s heartbreaking, often all at the same time.’ – James Bradley

‘As enjoyable and strange as George Saunders, but with a sharper edge, these stories are the lively medicine your brain needs now.’ – Jane Rawson

‘This scintillating bunch of stories, both formally and thematically daring, are a savage indictment of where things stand. But, for all the mayhem, there are also moments of tremendous heart.

Genres: Short Stories

146 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2025

Reviews

[JTH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever, tight writing, imaginative and razor sharp. Fun use of varied writing forms and voices. A timely and entertaining collection of stories.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going to be one of those books I force on people. Small but perfect.

[Rozanna Lilley]

I enjoyed this brusque collection of satires by Alexander Cothren. These pithy offerings take the form of monologues (a refugee league football talent scout, a coral restoration artist), a fabricated journal article, staff log entries, online chat groups, and royal commission transcripts. Even the genre expectations of Enid Blyton are reworked into a scary story of greed and entitlement. Cothren skewers, among other topics, groupthink, conspiracy theories, gambling, the growing rise of right wing politics, fear of immigrants, the death of the Australian university, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, and the pursuit of eternal youth. In the process, the growing gap between rich and poor is held up to the light along with the depths to which corporations will sink in pursuit of greater profits. One of my favourite stories was 'Georgia O'Keefe' in which family dynamics are played out against a backdrop of the possibilities and limitations of technological resurrection. Well worth a read.