Harvie Krumpet

Harvek Milos Krumpetzki is born in Poland in 1922, described as upside down and back to front. His mother remembers his differences and begins collecting pieces of information called fakts, written in a notebook hung around his neck. These fakts become a recurring motif throughout his life.

Harvie is teased at school, which leads his mother to pull him out of classes. She continues gathering fakts for him, helping him understand the world and cope with his differences. The notebook around his neck grows with each new entry.

With the outbreak of World War II, Harveck's home is burned during the night and his parents freeze to death. He becomes a refugee, fleeing Poland and beginning the migrant journey that will eventually lead him to Australia. This marks a turning point from his Polish life to a new future.

Harvie migrates to Australia as a refugee and settles in Spotswood, Victoria. He changes his name to Harvie Krumpet to start anew in a new country. The move signifies a fresh chapter far from his homeland.

As a child, Harvie is diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, shaping how others perceive him and how he navigates daily life. He learns to cope with his symptoms and resilience grows from this challenge.

A man punches Harvie's skull at a dump, and the injury leads to a steel plate replacement. The incident foreshadows the string of misfortunes he endures. It marks another blow in a life already filled with hardship.

A lightning strike electrifies Harvie, leaving him magnetised. He later discovers this odd trait while riding a tram, turning a terrible accident into a personal oddity he carries with him.

Harvie develops asthma as a consequence of heavy smoking, adding a chronic health hurdle to his already eventful life. Despite his health, he maintains an unexpectedly optimistic outlook.

In a park beside a statue of Horace, Harvie hears Carpe diem and is inspired to live more boldly. This moment acts as a turning point, prompting him to change his lifestyle and ambitions.

Following the inspiration, Harvie embraces nudism and joins a nudist group, adopts vegetarianism, and embarks on daring rescue missions for animal rights. His eccentric choices reflect a hopeful, defiant spirit.

Harvie meets Val, a nurse he meets in the hospital, and they marry in Cancer Ward 9. They try to conceive but his infertility due to one testicle complicates their plans. They later adopt Ruby, a thalidomide girl with deformed limbs.

Ruby moves to America to pursue a career as a lawyer, expanding the family across borders. Val dies of a stroke, leaving Harvie to carry on with life on his own.

Harvie develops Alzheimer's and is placed in a nursing home. He shares a room with Hamish, a 94-year-old man who also has Alzheimer's, creating a wary but eventually companionable dynamic.

In the medicine cabinet, Harvie takes morphine and encounters a mysterious woman who later dies by morphine overdose. He whispers a small 'thank you' and then strips at a bus stop, accepting that there is more living to do.

The final fakt reads: 'Life is like a cigarette. Smoke it to the butt.' Harvie accepts mortality but resolves to keep living fully until the end.