Set in southern Tasmania, the linked stories in Smokehouse bring into focus a small community and capture those moments when life turns and one person becomes another. As we get to know these characters – a mother whose fresh start leads to a fractured future, a stonemason seeking connection, a woman grieving her adopted mother, a couple torn apart by their daughter's drug addiction – we learn how their lives intersect, in various ways, across time and place. With insight and empathy, Melissa Manning interrogates how the people we meet and the places we live shape who we become.