The Best Australian Stories 2012 is the country's premier annual collection of short fiction. This year sees Sonya Hartnett select thirty-two remarkable stories that roam widely in subject and style, but share 'a delicate complexity and a vibrant cleverness.'A travelling scout for a modern-day freak show meets a girl with a strange and wonderful gift. A winning lottery ticket tests the bonds of three mismatched siblings. A beast of burden offers an alternative account of Australian settlement.There is dark humor, stealthy and unsettling, and moments of terror, whimsy, romance and surprise. What unites them is a steadfast commitment to the storyteller's art - the art of making the reader want to turn the page.