Right.’ She flicked the thin dress straps off her shoulders, then reached behind her back for the zip. ‘Let’s get started, mister.’ 

Anthony is barely present in his own life. A failed academic career, a soul-crushing call-centre job, an Alcoholics Anonymous group he resents attending: he’s checked out from all of it. 

He spends the Sydney summer trying to avoid the sun, and lives only for the evenings when he can visit Emma, a sex worker at a local brothel. It’s during these rented hours that Anthony finds brief moments of human connection. He can afford to see Emma maybe once a month, but he can never hold on that long.

Then Emma disappears, and there’s nowhere left for Anthony to hide. 

By turns appalling, funny and tender, The Bedevilments is an eye-opening story about addiction, sex and anonymity.