From the strains of a dissolving relationship, to the ripple effect of a chance encounter in an ordinary life, the characters in Cate Kennedy’s Dark Roots speak of the hidden motivations that propel us all into action. Kennedy’s characters hover at tipping points in their lives, at which an apparently insignificant decision can propel them into an undreamed of future, or mean the power of life and death. In just a few pages, Cate Kennedy captures whole lives with masterful narrative restraint – the regrets, the successes and the unintended ironies. She reveals how relationships can break down either slowly, through the accumulation of grievances, or suddenly, in a rush, with one false step. But she also shows how love for a partner, a child, or even a stranger, can save us. Dark Roots is a bravura collection of stories, by turns heartbreaking, richly comic and, above all, unerringly human.