From the awkward strain of dissolving relationships to the revealing vagaries of chance occurrences upon ordinary people, the voices that inhabit "Dark Roots" speak eloquently of the hidden motivations that propel us all to act. Kennedy's characters hover at tipping points in their lives, moments in which apparently insignificant decisions turn out to have devastating emotional consequences and even, sometimes, the power of life and death. In just a few pages, Cate Kennedy captures whole lives with masterful narrative restraint - the regrets, the successes, the unintended ironies. She reveals how relationships can break down either slowly, through the accumulations of grievances, or suddenly, in a rush, with one false step. But she can also show how the love for a partner or a child can save us. "Dark Roots" is by turns heartbreaking, richly comic and, above all, unerringly human.