Lech Blaine

CAR CRASH: A MEMOIR can be purchased from your local bookstore and online from Booktopia or Black Inc. Books. The audiobook version of CAR CRASH – narrated by actor Alec Snow – was released by Apple Books and Audible on the 1st of July.

“Blaine’s native tongue, an ocker irreverence, gives his writing an amiable charm and reflects the styles of artists such as Tim Winton, Miles Franklin, and Helen Garner.” Australian Book Review

“It’s as a memoir of the long twilight of the Howard years that Car Crash is at its most bruisingly insightful. Queensland is in the economic roil of the mining boom … but despite the prosperity there’s no grand narrative for what the country could be, just the empty shell of “mateship”.” The Guardian

“As an anatomy of a car crash and its reverberations in an age of social media, Car Crash delivers from the first arresting page. But it is also much more than this … He adeptly delivers a family saga, a social history and a bildungsroman set at the turn of the twenty-first century in southern Queensland.” Inside Story

“In fittingly hard-boiled, visceral prose, Blaine not only excavates the surreal horror of the crash and the aftermath, but also the utter inadequacy of the flimsy rituals and conventions that our society employs to keep the chaos death unleashes at bay.” – The Age / Sydney Morning Herald

“Wielding both a razor-sharp command of language and a real gift for scene setting, Blaine revisits the trauma and recovery that unfolded … Evoking the best of Helen Garner’s coolly incisive non-fiction, Car Crash balances its tragic subject matter with gorgeous runs of prose, announcing a major new Australian voice.” – Apple Books

“On the back of such a book, Lech Blaine has developed a voice that suggests he may well be one of the best writers of his generation.” The New Daily

“Blaine’s buoyant voice keeps you engaged: its mordant, ocker-tinged humour counterweighs the book’s bleakness.” The Saturday Paper

“Lech Blaine is a preternaturally gifted young writer, still in his twenties. His prose shows an easy sophistication and surreal wit, constantly throwing out pleasant surprises.” North Melbourne Books

“Immediately compelling, energetic and intense – I tore through the opening pages with my heart racing. But the story soon expands into something much deeper and, ultimately, more moving.” Readings Bookstore

“Car Crash is an accomplished debut that dissects ideas of grief, mateship, survivor’s guilt, stifling masculinity and class in regional Australia, and will be appreciated by fans of Don Watson, Corey White and Chloe Hooper.” — Books+Publishing