Now, in his coffin as his friends prepare to bury him, Max is surrounded by the ghosts of his life and the dreams that never faded. All the old music is back too - from raw seventies rock-and-roll to the type of cool jazz that made legends of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. In this sea of memory, Max recalls the tragedies, people and relationships that defined his life. From his first love Maree Kilmister he learned about sex; from his great love Debbie Canova he learned about loss; and from the enigmatic Laetecia Sparks, he learned about hope. As the players in his life gather for his funeral, he has one last chance to relive his past and see it for what it was. Driven by music and passion, The Dirty Beat shimmers with an electric intensity.

Author Biography

Venero Armanno was born in Brisbane, and has studied at the University of Queensland, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, Queensland University of Technology, and the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. The son of Sicilian migrants, he has travelled and worked widely throughout the world. In 1995, 1997 and 1999 he lived and worked at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, and he is frequently invited to speak about his work in Spain and Germany. He is the author of a book of short stories, Jumping at the Moon, and the novels The Lonely Hunter, Romeo of the Underworld, My Beautiful Friend, The Volcano, Strange Rain, Firehead and Candle Life.