1998: Sixty Days of Summer

Based on real events, 1998: Sixty Days of Summer is an autobiographical coming-of-age novel exploring the lives of the author and his close group of friends at the height of the mid-90s skateboarding resurgence.

Firmly rooted in the West Coast skate scene, the crew is forced to confront situations that test their friendships and relationships, scratching beneath the hyper-masculine veneer of the era's skate culture to reveal unbreakable bonds, compassion, respect and camaraderie.

At its centre is Jorin, a quiet autistic skater whose intimate and fragmented way of experiencing the world shapes the texture and tone of the story. His twin brother Erik shares the same wiring but masks it through restlessness and motion. Shaun, Jorin's childhood best friend, is loud, impulsive and endlessly alive, his opposite in every way, yet the one who sees through the mask. Though not a story about autism, the twins' traits are embodied in the prose, mirroring how they see and feel the world around them.

Exploring themes of abuse, death, sexuality and assault, the novel is written in the gritty language of the era, during a time when emotion was buried and image was everything.