Description
Tennis prodigy Olie Wood was once the toast of professional sports. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He gave prime ministers lessons, dated movie stars, and was rumoured to have been intimate with Madonna. (He'll neither confirm nor deny.) But a bizarre incident at the Australian Open involving a tragically murdered kookaburra, setting in motion a run of bad luck that continues to this day, has reduced him to a broken man desperately clinging to memories of greatness.
Now in his thirties, Olie is nearing the end of what little remains of his tragic career. A dabbler in drugs, he is at times dishevelled and delirious, playing the Futures tennis circuit against athletes half his age in small, no-name towns. When he eventually hits rock bottom, he is forced to face a life of responsibility and maybe even a real job. But Olie has one remaining goal: to qualify for the US Open for one last big payday and one final grasp at fame.
With a protagonist who may be hard to like on the outside but deep down you can't help but root for, Backspin follows Olie, his cat, and his defrocked-priest pal Gary across North America and Europe on an epic road trip quite unlike any other.
About the author
Charles Crosby is a produced playwright and published novelist (his debut novel, italics, mine - short-listed for the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award - was published in 2005 by Norwood Publishing. His new novel, Backspin is now out.) In 2002 he was Writer in Residence at Mulgrave Rd. Theatre in Guysborough, Nova Scotia.
In addition to creative writing Charles Crosby was a founding partner in Pavonis Limited, and is a former Director of Communications for Neptune Theatre in Halifax and Director of Communications and Marketing for the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He is currently Manager of Media Relations at Dalhousie University in Halifax