"Such is Life" is an imaginary novel written by Australian author John Furphy, also known as Tom Collins.The story was published in 1903 and it is an imaginary account of rural life in the Australian regions of New South Wales and Victoria. The opera is set during the eighties of the 1800s. The Australian writer imagines many truly amazing characters. The whole novel is composed of a series of stories intertwined vaguely by the various people encountered by the narrator as he travels through the countryside. The book is often full of irony, mixed with situations where action and pathos take over.