The Promise

by Tony Birch

Outstanding new fiction from the Miles Franklin-shortlisted author of Blood In this breathtaking new work, Tony Birch affirms his position as one of Australia’s finest writers of short-form fiction. Using his unflinching creative gaze, he ponders love and loss and faith. A trio of amateur thieves are left in charge of a baby moments before a heist. A group of boys compete in the final of a marbles tournament, only to find their biggest challenge was the opponent they didn’t see coming. Two young friends find a submerged car in their local swimming hole and become obsessed by the mystery of the driver’s identity. Across twelve blistering stories, The Promise delivers a sensitive and often humorous take on the lives of those who have loved, lost and wandered.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Australia, Indigenous, Adult Fiction

151 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Tony Birch is the author of Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio and a regular guest at writers’ festivals. He lives in Melbourne and is a Senior Research Fellow at Victoria University.

Reviews

[Mish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Promise is a stunning collection of short stories, told in the first person of men and boy’s who’ve made promises in life. Promises of love and friendship, changes and sacrifices, and remembering those they’ve lost. They’re men and boy’s from all walks of life - you may walk on by in the street without a second glance. They seem composed and the silent type, but underneath there is a hidden anxiety, loneness or even joyfulness that is not easily expressed. Tony Birch calmly unveils these emotions into a breathtaking, sincere and fulfilling tale.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not being a huge fan of short stories, usually finding them lacking in closure and content I was a little apprehensive about reading this book. I needn't have been. With The Promise Tony Birch delivers deep, emotional and very satisfying stories. The themes of love, loss, disappointment and more were very palatable. I'm glad I broke my own rules about short stories and read this book.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to read, engaging collection of twelve short stories all narrated in the first person. Most of the stories are narrated by young Australian boys or men. The stories include a tale about a marble competition, another about a man who grieves his dead son, another about two young friends find a submerged car in their local swimming hole, and a story about amateur thieves left in charge of a baby moments before a heist.

This book was first published in 2014. Readers who enjoy the author’s minimalist writing style should find this short story collection a satisfying reading experience.

[Michael Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely short book filled with beautiful, sad and powerful stories. Birch is a wonderful writer of Australian stories, focussing mostly on working class characters in inner Melbourne. This collection has a broader palette than the linked stories in Shadowboxing which gives Birch a chance to tackle broader settings and themes but costs the satisfying coherence of that earlier collection.

[Rina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories aren't usually my cup of tea - you've invested time to know the characters, only for the story to end a few pages later. It's always cut too short, and I end up not not feeling satisfied at the end of the book.

This was included. However, I did quite enjoy some of the stories. Even with my beginner's eyes, I could see that this was a superb collection of short stories. The stories were distinct from one another - it took a great Author to be able to churn a collection of distinct voices and distinct characters one after another.

The Victoria setting was familiar and very welcome to me. It felt like 'home'.

All in all, I enjoyed this book more than I'd expected.

[Ashley Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The picture on the cover of this book shows a bridge, interrupted – it’s a clean break, rather than anything to do with decay or damage. It’s as if a section has simply been excised.
In this suite of 12 short stories, Birch is often dealing with things that are missing – the space after an accident, the almost-end of life, the desultory nothingness of boredom and childhood. I read these stories in preparation for a panel at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival that will talk about “writing the wide brown land” and Australia’s landscapes, but for all the careful and evocative detail that Birch sketches in for the settings of his stories (particularly "China", "The Promise", and "Distance", it’s the internal landscapes of his characters that niggle at the reader, getting under their skin.
The stand-outs, for me, were the stories of adolescence and of the bolshie male state that exists just on the other side of it: “The Toes-cutters”, “Snare”, and “Sticky Fingers” – a stunning story of a marbles competition in inner city Melbourne and the fatal appearance of A Girl.
Some of Birch’s sentences are exquisite in their beauty; others punch with rank injustice and human loss. I first met Tony Birch’s words in Brothers and Sisters, the anthology of siblings’ stories edited by Charlotte Wood – I loved the raw power of his contribution, “Blood”. That power is here, too, in these carefully crafted pieces, and the whole that they make quivers with a hustle of different lives, rarely all OK, rarely all complete, always utterly recognisable.

[Emkoshka]

Abandoned on 10 June 2022 at p. 68

I'm really getting into short stories this year, but yeah, nah, these ones were not for me. Couldn't relate to any of the swearing, drinking, farting working-class male characters, sorry not sorry, and the writing was ordinary. But I did enjoy 'The Toecutters', set in the very familiar area around Dights Falls, Melbourne.

[Kel · Rating 2 out of 5]

For all the hype, I was underwhelmed. The stories I read were well crafted, with good characterisation, but I gave up after three stories because I was bored, and wanted to read my other waiting books more.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birch is good at capturing a moment, a dilemma, a decision and co-opting your sympathy as a reader, almost against your better judgement. However, in several of these stories I found myself turning the page, only to find that the story had ended. I don’t need a resolution, or for everything to be tied up neatly, but the incompleteness of some of these stories frustrated me. This was more true of the early stories in the collection, and I don’t know if the later stories became more rounded, or whether I’d become accustomed to having the narrative yanked away so abruptly. So, I think of these stories more as shards, sharp-edged and needing to be handled carefully (just as their main characters are), rather than rounded wholes in themselves. I just can’t help thinking, though, that some of them are a ‘promise’ left unfulfilled.

See my entire review at
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...

[Ben KR · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 but I'm going to round it down.

The Promise is a lovely collection of short stories about "the lives of those who have loved, lost and wandered".

I've recently become obsessed with Tony Birch after reading 'Blood' and 'Shadowboxing', two books that I absolutely adored. Birch has an uncanny ability to deeply develop his characters in startlingly few words, and this is one of the major strengths of The Promise.

However, while I loved some of the stories in this collection (particularly 'Sticky Fingers', 'After Rachel' and 'Distance'), a few of them felt a bit trite.

I love Birch's writing style so I'd still recommend it, but not nearly as highly as Blood or Shadowboxing.

[Rose Wh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some hits, some misses, I’m not really the target audience for this book, it’s angsty male kinda Tim Winton vibes which makes sense as the author has a passion for writing stories that young men will want to read. I think it was good, just took me a while to get through in the way short story collections sometimes do, like I get properly drawn into a story in the final three paras and then have to start all over again the next moment. I liked the settings and many of the characters, especially the younger ones.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

#39. The Promise by Tony Birch.
I loved every word of these fantastic short stories. Tony Birch writes with perception and absolute honesty about real people and situations: the bullied just, forsaken girlfriend, lonely old man. His stories are about people living life with all its turns and emotions. I love the shirt story genre; so much can be said in such a few words. *****

[Harvard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I did like this collection, the stories themselves are so abrasive and hardened that I could only read one or two at a time. Most do bring their characters to hopeful moments, but in order to make that hope feel worthwhile they also drag the reader through the harshness that leads to a moment of desperation.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this. The storytelling was fantastic. However, I got a bit confused as there wasn't any real separation from one story to the next. More pause would have made this more enjoyable.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were well written, one was funny. But really not my thing. Couldn’t get into them like you can a novel. I found the first lot hard going and almost gave up- very bogan in their tone. There were 3 maybe 4 that were worth reading. Some I didn’t get the ending at all

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why do so many good writers use really awful language? I DNF this bundle of short stories. Even though i could appreciate the story lines and creditable writing, I just cant do the foul language any more. I do wonder if a great writer could get the same message across without the language, would it be as valued by the critics and public?

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Birch at his best.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Stories that made me laugh and hope and cry.

[Anna Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant collection of short stories from Tony Birch.

[Janine De paiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Tony Birch short stories but hate when each story finishes. I want to know more!!

[Emma Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this collection. Each story engaged and moved me. Looking forward to discovering another Tony Birch collection.

[Jeremy Limn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evocative collection of short stories that deserve to be praise as Australian literary classics.

[Tomiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read Aussie book of 12 short stories.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, each well written but overall I wasn’t very interested in any of them.

[kie-dizzle · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was not for me. i strongly disliked it. it was very grotesquely written and very ‘bogan’. some stories i liked more than others, but some i very much didn’t enjoy.

[Annie Gilholm rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The alchemy of the short story is alive and well (still/always) when Tony Birch has pen in hand. Easily one of this country’s finest writers.

[Brenda Rosser]

short stories by mistake but great

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tight short and thoughtful tales of life down and out in the city and bush.

[Danaë Paternoster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic collection of short stories that make you wonder how the story would end if continued.

[Kirsten Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sat down to read The Promise by Tony Birch after reading quiet a large book previously .Entering the lives of men at their lowest points from death ,broken marriages, or an acholic on a bender ,or a son looking for his father ,through short stories .Told as though you have entered it for just a very brief period to see them at their lowest and then their hope ,or redemption appear like a ray of sunshine flittering through the clouds just at the end .will leave you pondering about it for days .loved it