Typically consisting of a long, narrow, sharpenededge attached to a handle, chisels are distinguished from knives and axes in that they're driven by a sharp blow from a hammer or mallet.
It begins with his near-fatal car crash in 1999 on a fishing trip in the outback of Australia, an event that crippled his walking for the rest of his life, and then flashes back to his upbringing in a prominent Sydney family, which educated him at Jesuit schools and sharpened his antiauthoritarian edge.