Because the greatest journey isn’t around the world. It’s on the road to becoming. As a young Irish Catholic boy growing up in suburban Sydney, Paul Dufficy’s world was shaped as much by the rigours of boarding school as by dreams of life beyond the familiar. Those dreams carried him across Asia-from bustling cities and remote villages to classrooms in Japan and, improbably, the jungles of the Philippines during the filming of Apocalypse Now. Along the way he found lifelong friendships, unexpected mentors, moments of danger, and a soundtrack that never stopped playing. But beneath the travel, humour and adventure lies a deeper story. Fingers Crossed is about the slow, untidy process of becoming a man-and, more importantly, becoming a good person. It is a story shaped not by certainty or bravado, but by love, loss, faith, doubt and the quiet determination to keep moving forward. It asks what survives when youthful dreams collide with reality, and how curiosity, kindness and resilience can triumph over fear and regret. These stories offer no easy answers. Instead, they celebrate the unexpected lessons found on the roads we travel and the remarkable people who quietly change us along the way.
