Elisabeth Wynhausen was at her desk writing a story about people being sacked when she was sacked herself. The Short Goodbye is the untold story of a nation forever changed by the global financial crisis and the people whose lives have been glossed over in the grand narratives of politicians and commentators.
With verve and wit, she dissects the myth that Australia dodged a financial bullet by documenting the lives of those discarded on an economic minefield, from bankers to factory workers, and warns that without reform Australia could suffer a more terrible social and economic calamity from the next global rout.
Elisabeth Wynhausen is the author of Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market, which was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Manly Girls, shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and On Resilience. She has been a staff writer for The Bulletin, The National Times and The Australian.