The Nail House

‘Life is guerrilla war, a constant struggle. You have to know when to retreat and when to attack.’ Lindon, an Australian project manager with a failed marriage behind him, is lured to China with the promise of a lucrative salary. His task: to solve the problem of a "nail house," the home of a stubborn old man who refuses to relocate, even as the bulldozers move in and the skyscrapers grow around him. But as Lindon negotiates with the old man’s family, he finds sense where there is none, and love where there is war.

"Absorbing, with twists and turns." —Mobo Gao, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Adelaide

"With the subtlest of touches, Baines succeeds in capturing the competing desires and concerns of a nation's inexorable rise." —Susie Gordon, Editor at Alluvium

Gregory Baines lives just outside Canberra, Australia. He has an arts degree from Newcastle University. He lived in China for thirteen years, where he also met his wife. There he wrote his first novel and had short stories published in anthologies and online.