About
Andrew McDougall is a New Zealand-born author living in Kingsville, in Melbourne’s inner west. He has co-authored two non-fiction books and published articles and essays. He previously worked in photography, outdoor recreation and information technology, with a career spanning New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.
Current Novel
Under the Bridge, Before the Storm is an 85,000-word work of contemporary literary fiction set in Wellington, Melbourne, Daegu and Kyoto.
A crayfisherman knows how to light a woman in a ball gown on a bridge at the end of the world. A Melbourne collector knows where the photograph will look best above her sofa. The gallery assistant keeps the good wine for the prospects and the cask wine for the fine art students. Photographer Hamish Cameron has finally secured the exhibition of his dreams, but the woman wearing Dolce & Gabbana only wants to meet his model.
Back in Wellington, museum curator Isabella, whose memories may or may not be hers, investigates a Māori cloak with murky provenance. She and Hamish find a Japanese glass fishing float on a remote beach. The kanji character embedded in its glass also appears on a wooden comb in a Kyoto museum.
The woman in Dolce & Gabbana has something to photograph; a storm washes out a bridge, and a secret in an attic connects the cloak to Hamish’s family history. Elsewhere, a woman in a kimono plays a flute, a Buddhist monk recognises the comb, and a corrupt detective and a samurai won’t take no for an answer.
From a coastal bach in New Zealand to a gallery in Melbourne to a bridge outside Kyoto, the past has a way of catching up with the present. Under the Bridge, Before the Storm is a sexy, irreverent metaphysical thriller that won’t let go until the sirens start to wail.