Rose Boys

A family. Two brothers. And a moment which robbed one of his future and changed forever the lives of those around him...Rose Boys is the story of two young men - profoundly different, compellingly linked by blood ties, the famous sporting family they belonged to, and the immense misfortune that befell one of them...At 22, Robert Rose faced a rare choice. He could devote his talents to cricket with every prospect of a place among the best of his generation. Or he could take the path his father had made, to the top of Australian Rules football. And then, on a country road late at night he became a quadriplegic. He lived for another twenty-five years, totally dependent on others. Now his brother, Peter Rose - a leading literary figure - has written Robert's story. It tells of change - from a glamorous and hedonistic youth to a man of enormous dignity and insight. Robert's story is contrasted with the author's very different experience and his unlikely membership of a classic Australian sporting milieu. ..In telling the two brothers' story, Peter Rose draws on his journals, the journalism written about his brother and father, and recent interviews with many of the key people in Robert's life. The result is a profoundly moving account of rare candour and penetration. Along the way, in simple, engrossing prose, many themes are touched on: family, loyalty, physical and emotional dependence - and above all, mortality...No one confronting Robert Rose in Rose Boys will quickly forget this unaffected, heroic man or the testing fate that awaited him on St Valentine's Day 1974.