Hiding Place

by Dave Goddard

Here's some pidgin, Mick and Garrick spoke rapidly. "Who been dat pella? Where him been prom? You been subby him? Him been talk punny way, ay? Him been kardiya bloke" What? Mick shook his head quickly. "I said, 'who is that man? Where is he from? Do you know him? Doesn't he talk in a strange way? He's a stranger in this place'" It's 2017. Mick Wilson's wife has taken off from Adelaide with a long-haul truck-driver and Mick's two little kids. In an attempt to find his family, Mick, a brick-layer and former top-level Australian Rules footballer, blindly heads for Alice Springs. In Central Australia, where many people go to hide from their past, Mick finds a different and challenging world. He stumbles into work on a remote cattle station, with an Aboriginal community close by. He also finds three very different women who shape his destiny. Racial tensions, tangled personal relationships, a mysterious mountain range and a struggling Aboriginal community and football team force Mick to become part of a strange new world and way of being. Across a cultural divide, new understandings emerge in the most unlikely ways. Through it all, Mick searches and aches for his kids, but because of the people he comes to know, he's never alone.

372 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2013

About the author

My interests were sport (I represented WA as a junior in Australian Rules football and cricket), music (guitarist and floor-show artist), teaching and educational administration, and research.

Each of these exposed me in one way or another to what has become and abiding interest, which is change management focussed on Aboriginal community develoment.

Reviews

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Goddard's debut novel combines an involving plot with plenty of humor and humanity against a backdrop of racial tensions in the center of the Australian outback.

I found the central plot of a young man looking for his kids (and for some solace and sanctuary) immediately engaging, and from the start the book was a real page turner.

For a book covering some weighty themes, the prose was very easy to read and full of natural comedy. Romance and footy are mixed effortlessly into the tale alongside less cheerful themes of broken families and cultures clashing. The easy switching from "school book" English to pidgin gives an instant sense of place and atmosphere.

The characters are delightful, flawed and multidimensional: we've all known (or been!) people like this.

Goddard doesn't pull any punches when looking at the serious problems faced by remote communities, and the mistakes people make in dealing with issues and with one another. Compassion and clear insight, without sugar coating, is what makes this such a relevant story and a welcome change from the one-sided soundbites provided by the media. Even as tensions build towards a violent climax the book doesn't offer any easy answers or convenient scapegoats; there are no "goodies" and "baddies" here.

If you want to read, laugh, learn something fascinating and then maybe think a little, this is the book for you.