Rush

Right here. Right now. Tell me: Would you rather live, or just exist?

After a chance meeting with American journalist Hayes in Vietnam, the wild-eyed narrator finds himself on an adrenaline and testosterone-fuelled trip into a world of pain, risk and desperate men. As he finds himself taking on Hayes' identity - and his girlfriend, Phoebe - he is drawn into a seedy underground where men gamble on games of Russian roulette and life is very, very cheap.

But when his new name gets him in more trouble than it's worth, he and Phoebe flee to Cambodia, telling the authorities they were kidnapped by bandits and so they have no visas. Soon, though, he is forced to run again.

Increasingly affected by an inoperable brain tumour, the boundaries between reality and hallucination blur as he crosses borders and the body count mounts. As the pace - and the perversity - increase, his warped media-saturated perceptions are split searingly open.

Splicing Tarantino-esque ultra-violence and the cult allure of 'The Beach', 'Rush' blasts us like a pulsating burst of energy. A blackly funny and highly charged debut from a brilliant new voice in fiction. Winner of the 2001 Young Author's Award.