Shortlisted for the 2015 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, Fine offers the untold back-stories to the opaque phrases we use as everyday armour: 'I'm Fine', 'Good thanks', 'Can't complain'. Wright uses each story to build detailed insight into the network of complex states and situations that exist behind her characters' learned veneer of small talk and half smiles. In '[Wǝrdz]', the linguist protagonist is shrouded by the unexpected ordinariness surrounding her father's death: 'I want to confront it with a word that sounds as hard as it needs to be – dead – bookended by a pair of [d] – a final sound.'

The collection's geographical breadth – from the backstreets of suburban Australia to a No Fire Zone near the Nandikadal Lagoon in Sri Lanka – is admirable, if occasionally exhausting. Some readers may long for an anchor or stronger thread for the large collection. However, this sensation of being adrift feels intentional; for many of Wright's characters, the world is unpredictable and uncontained.

Wright explores both everyday setbacks and unexpected disasters. Her unusually stoic characters inhabit swift plotlines and varied styles. Most stories linger. Others aren't as affecting. Overall, though, Fine flexes strong among the most accomplished short story collections. The act of reading Wright's emerging body of work can be neatly summarised by a character's observation in 'Summertime', a story that appears towards the end of the collection: 'What just happened is real and that its beauty and its sadness are what makes [it] worthwhile.'