If she screamed, he wonders, would they hear her up there, up there in the houses? If she ran, he wonders, could I catch her? And if I caught her, could I…?

He coughs again, furious. Would I? These unsettling short stories, which include the prize-winning novella ‘Quarry’, expose an anatomy of worry in its many guises—unease, fear, dread, and terror.

Through a multitude of distinct voices, H.C. Gildfind’s startling tales explore the absurd, macabre, surreal—and too-real—whilst wrestling with the irrevocable acts, immutable facts, and relentless uncertainties that lie at the dark heart of every life.

"A quiet brilliance is on display in several of the collection’s stories, expressing the immensity of a life in a single moment or gesture… compelling and disturbing in equal measure…”

MARK AZZOPARDI, Sydney Review of Books

Further praise for The Worry Front -

“Gildfind’s intense, visceral, surprising stories of desire and hesitation make this a brilliant and earthy debut.” – Philip Salom, award-winning poet and novelist, whose novel Waiting was shortlisted for the 2017 Miles Franklin Award

“Gildfind is a writer whose work pulses with life and visceral power. Rarely has the experience of the lived physical body been so eloquently pinned to the page.”– Zora Sanders, previous editor, Meanjin

“With a suggestiveness reminiscent of Woolf or Mansfield laced with the wariness of a faster, more interdependent, and less gender-scripted world, Gildfind brings a new generation's voice into Australian literature.”
– Nicholas Birns, editor, Antipodes, New York