Diminuendo : Moshpit Publishing : 9781922261908 : 1922261904 : 11 Apr 2019 : Diminuendo is the third collection of Evan Johnstone's stubbornly original work. Stories contemplate romantic staples such as the primacy of love and the consolations of art, among other compensations for the occasional difficulty encountered in life; stories of crime, clerical life, death and restaurant reviewing complete a darkly frothy mix. All are tinged with doubt, irony and a playfully surreal realism, founded in a distinctively poetic prose. Some of the stories are parodies of genre fiction, such as crime and romance, a witty engagement with a literary tradition while also developing the stories in new directions. Crime In 'The Greengrocer's Daughter', caseworkers at the NSW Department of Community Services suspect, given that Australia does not have an indigenous monkey population, that the brains of babies or young children are being used to supplement the lucrative export of monkey brains. An u