The first in a series of five novellas, this is a wafer slim but utterly satisfying delight: an entrée that feels like the main course. Way more filing than it looks, this is a marvellously observed, tautly contained vignette of the encounter between music journo Jeff Foster and his nineteen year old pop star subject Na$ti Boi. They meet in a specially closed department store so that Na$ti can do some luxe brand shopping in private. Awkward and uneasy, the two dance around each other, with minder Smokey, security personnel and shop assistants in attendance. There is an embarrassing moment involving a credit card. Earls knows pitches this sharply contemporary piece perfectly. He captures the zeitgeist, understands the facades of fame and what they hide, the insecurities of celebrity, and the dynamics that make connection so fragile and fleeting between people who are meeting for purely professional reasons. But there is tenderness and pathos here too, revealed gradually as the story builds from something seemingly slight - a celebrity encounter - to become something deeper: Smokey’s wife is in labour, but he’s not by her side, he’s following progress on the phone. Jeff is a father too and time with his daughter is more than normally precious, so the long drawn out exchange with Na$ti costs him dearly. The tug between his work life and his life as a dad adds poignancy to this pocket sized pleaser. More please. Wisdom Tree - Five Novellas by best selling author Nick Earls Inkerman & Blunt will release one novella at a time, on the first of every month from May to September 2016. The novella is back disturbing the literary waters and Australia is leading the surge and Inkerman & Blunt is stirring the waves with these five pocket-sized finely crafted, richly intelligent novellas. Wisdom Tree is the accessible book for twenty-first century time poor, screen devoted readers. Published as Cargoes in Griffith Review 50 Tall Tales Short—The Novella Project III, Gotham tells of the encounter between music journalist, Jeff Foster and ‘boy pharaoh’, Na$ti Boi. It reveals how hollow celebrities cast their spell. Think, Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe. Nick Earls is the award winning author of twelve novels and numerous shorter works. With the publication of the Word Hunters trilogy (Penguin 2012­-2013), he is now officially also a children’s writer. Find out more about him at: nickearls.wordpress.com