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Hollow Air
Isolation can be hard on a person. It can be hard on the mind, especially when the bush closes in on you in the darkness of night.
In the tin fields of Far North Queensland, Sarah, a fly-in-fly-out geologist, is working alone at a remote mine site. She spends her time in a sort of limbo, never quite fitting into her life at site or back home in Sydney with her fiancé.
Strange things keep happening at the mine site, and Sarah can try to explain them away as the ramblings of a lonely mind, but there are dead bodies from a mining accident a century ago at the old Dulcie Ada mine, still buried beneath more than a hundred metres of rock.
A deeply moving novel that explores the friction that comes with the desire to understand the secrets of the Earth coupled with the knowledge that this can exact a toll.
PRAISE FOR HOLLOW AIR
‘Layered with suspense, subterfuge, and the fractures that absence can cause, Hollow Air moves seamlessly from life above ground to the value of what lies beneath. Verity Borthwick’s female FIFO geologist, Sarah, is tough-as-titanium and a total joy to read. A superb debut.’ – Eleanor Limprecht, author of The Coast
‘The remote mining setting of Hollow Air infuses this novel with mystery and drama right from the start as we anxiously watch its protagonist Sarah confront isolation and uncertainty, both professional and personal. Meanwhile, haunting events from a hundred years before slowly emerge to remind her – and us – that when the earth is violated it will inevitably seek revenge. In a beautifully paced story that never falters, Verity Borthwick explores the tensions between women and men, and the abrasive truth that the past is somehow never behind us.’ – Debra Adelaide, author of The Women’s Pages
‘As starkly disarming and beautiful as its setting, Hollow Air is at once a thriller, rural gothic mystery and love story. This is a sensory wonder that both suffocates and enraptures, with all the hallmarks of an Australian classic. Borthwick’s storytelling will haunt me.’
– Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of The Gulf
In the tin fields of Far North Queensland, Sarah, a fly-in-fly-out geologist, is working alone at a remote mine site. She spends her time in a sort of limbo, never quite fitting into her life at site or back home in Sydney with her fiancé.
Strange things keep happening at the mine site, and Sarah can try to explain them away as the ramblings of a lonely mind, but there are dead bodies from a mining accident a century ago at the old Dulcie Ada mine, still buried beneath more than a hundred metres of rock.
A deeply moving novel that explores the friction that comes with the desire to understand the secrets of the Earth coupled with the knowledge that this can exact a toll.
PRAISE FOR HOLLOW AIR
‘Layered with suspense, subterfuge, and the fractures that absence can cause, Hollow Air moves seamlessly from life above ground to the value of what lies beneath. Verity Borthwick’s female FIFO geologist, Sarah, is tough-as-titanium and a total joy to read. A superb debut.’ – Eleanor Limprecht, author of The Coast
‘The remote mining setting of Hollow Air infuses this novel with mystery and drama right from the start as we anxiously watch its protagonist Sarah confront isolation and uncertainty, both professional and personal. Meanwhile, haunting events from a hundred years before slowly emerge to remind her – and us – that when the earth is violated it will inevitably seek revenge. In a beautifully paced story that never falters, Verity Borthwick explores the tensions between women and men, and the abrasive truth that the past is somehow never behind us.’ – Debra Adelaide, author of The Women’s Pages
‘As starkly disarming and beautiful as its setting, Hollow Air is at once a thriller, rural gothic mystery and love story. This is a sensory wonder that both suffocates and enraptures, with all the hallmarks of an Australian classic. Borthwick’s storytelling will haunt me.’
– Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of The Gulf
307 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 26, 2025
5 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Verity Borthwick
3 books5 followersVerity Borthwick comes to writing from a background in geology. She spent four years looking at one crystal of salt for her PhD and started writing in her spare time so as not to go mad. She has been published in Island and the UTS Writers’ Anthology 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 3, 2025
Sarah’s world felt like the fractured landscape she was paid to explore in her job. A landscape shaped by forces she had no control over. As a geologist, her training prepared her to read the earth’s hidden stories. Each layer, crack, and vein was a chapter of time’s relentless pressures, a reflection of her own life. Beneath these layers was a heart strained by absence and longing. The FIFO life pulled her away from her fiancé, leaving both of them suspended in a vast emotional void.
At the Dulcie Ada mining site in a dusty Australian landscape, Sarah's male colleagues pressured up around her. Ian’s inherited privilege, Norm’s years of experience, Joe’s shadowy past, and Cole’s risk taking made it all seem a hopeless cause to find any relic of gold seam. Tension was in every glance, every word, threatening to crack open beneath her feet. Sarah had to be strong as bedrock to hold firm the exploration work ahead, to prevent the emotional fault line that could swallow them all up. Sarah kept her head low with a quiet but nervous resilience, yet the isolation of her role highlighted just how vulnerable she was. The mine collapse incident over a century ago was just as much buried and elusive as that gold seam. Samuel and Tom’s story as they entered the mine and became trapped is recorded in alternating chapters.
Hollow Air is about the invisible pressures that shapes people, the tyranny of distance, the weight of history and memory that threaten to open when least expected. That elusive gold seam became a metaphor for the fragile hope that Sarah tried to hold onto, living under all of the rubble of doubt. In that harsh and unforgiving outback setting, the old mine site carried the scars of the past, tempting all those who ventured close to the mine to explore it, to see whether its intricate layers were worth being discovered.
At the Dulcie Ada mining site in a dusty Australian landscape, Sarah's male colleagues pressured up around her. Ian’s inherited privilege, Norm’s years of experience, Joe’s shadowy past, and Cole’s risk taking made it all seem a hopeless cause to find any relic of gold seam. Tension was in every glance, every word, threatening to crack open beneath her feet. Sarah had to be strong as bedrock to hold firm the exploration work ahead, to prevent the emotional fault line that could swallow them all up. Sarah kept her head low with a quiet but nervous resilience, yet the isolation of her role highlighted just how vulnerable she was. The mine collapse incident over a century ago was just as much buried and elusive as that gold seam. Samuel and Tom’s story as they entered the mine and became trapped is recorded in alternating chapters.
Hollow Air is about the invisible pressures that shapes people, the tyranny of distance, the weight of history and memory that threaten to open when least expected. That elusive gold seam became a metaphor for the fragile hope that Sarah tried to hold onto, living under all of the rubble of doubt. In that harsh and unforgiving outback setting, the old mine site carried the scars of the past, tempting all those who ventured close to the mine to explore it, to see whether its intricate layers were worth being discovered.
January 10, 2026
Mining is fuuuucked but wow what a topic. Even though it’s fictional the author is a geologist so there so many interesting observations about mining and how it sits with different people, which I really enjoyed. I liked the descriptions of the landscape etc too. (Had to skip scary in the mine bits :))Wished the storyline was just a bit stronger!!
January 23, 2026
Many, many things were frustrating about this novel: A victim-soul protagonist who was tediously agoraphobic and assumed nothing but the worst of everyone around her; The author’s think-pieces awkwardly fused to the narrative with a flimsy “Sarah thought that” or “Sarah knew that”; So many AO3isms that I had to set the book down and dramatically roll my eyes in public multiple times. And the hauntings… Bruh.
We start with such an amazing premise: a geologist working on site at an abandoned mine, alone but for the two 100-year-old bodies, dead and trapped in a cave after a mining incident. Haunting ensues.
But a conspicuous lack of tension in the writing, along with a strange, corporate air that suffocates Sarah’s thoughts and motivations gives me nothing to THINK about. And, crucially, if the ghosts are not real, then what is haunting Sarah!?
I never felt grounded in the actual timeline of the novel. The isolation and loneliness never hit home because we were never truly with Sarah while she was alone - either some generalisation was made that ‘this is what Sarah always did’ or ‘always felt’, or her actions would be very literally and clinically transcribed like a methodical, thoughtless ritual. To me, this lent more to a feeling of monotony than of any kind of uncertainty. I don’t think that was intentional, but I also don’t believe that Sarah was being haunted by her loneliness.
It seems more likely that Sarah was simply haunted by a fear of men. This is an interesting possibility, but makes no narrative sense given the dead men’s story and was definitely not the intended takeaway.
What about guilt? I hate this one because it’s probably the most likely, but in a way I find annoying and irrelevant. Sarah’s lack of love for her fiancé leads her to enjoy this life of solitude, and resent him further for trying to draw her out of it. She seems to hate everything about him - his friends, his job, his joie de vivre - and so cheats on him instead of going to their engagement party. Okay, sure. But of all the things to feel guilty about! You are a geologist for a mining company!!
This is where I believe the author’s self soothing becomes apparent. Through Sarah, the author explains away her environmental guilt (accidents happen, but we try our best and besides, this mine already exists), explains away her white guilt (she respects Native Title and does her due diligence according those bureaucratic institutions, which she also admits aren’t perfect), doesn’t even really feel guilt about being the surviving employee when many who live and breath in this dying town lost their livelihoods. I won’t say there was nothing at all, no talk about these concerns and more, but I wanted much, much more. I think the author may be too close to the subject, would feel her lurching out of that close third person perspective to justify herself to herself, through us.
Without a personal tie to these hauntings, they were so damn buzzfeed! Scary because we understand ghosts to be scary, ghosts because we understand ghosts to glimmer in our peripheral vision and maybe fuck with the lights. So so standard and so impersonal! Coming off reading Hotel World by Ali Smith the other month (which I didn’t even really like that much) these ghosts didn’t hold a candle.
Anyway. In no way was this the worst thing I have ever read. So.
We start with such an amazing premise: a geologist working on site at an abandoned mine, alone but for the two 100-year-old bodies, dead and trapped in a cave after a mining incident. Haunting ensues.
But a conspicuous lack of tension in the writing, along with a strange, corporate air that suffocates Sarah’s thoughts and motivations gives me nothing to THINK about. And, crucially, if the ghosts are not real, then what is haunting Sarah!?
I never felt grounded in the actual timeline of the novel. The isolation and loneliness never hit home because we were never truly with Sarah while she was alone - either some generalisation was made that ‘this is what Sarah always did’ or ‘always felt’, or her actions would be very literally and clinically transcribed like a methodical, thoughtless ritual. To me, this lent more to a feeling of monotony than of any kind of uncertainty. I don’t think that was intentional, but I also don’t believe that Sarah was being haunted by her loneliness.
It seems more likely that Sarah was simply haunted by a fear of men. This is an interesting possibility, but makes no narrative sense given the dead men’s story and was definitely not the intended takeaway.
What about guilt? I hate this one because it’s probably the most likely, but in a way I find annoying and irrelevant. Sarah’s lack of love for her fiancé leads her to enjoy this life of solitude, and resent him further for trying to draw her out of it. She seems to hate everything about him - his friends, his job, his joie de vivre - and so cheats on him instead of going to their engagement party. Okay, sure. But of all the things to feel guilty about! You are a geologist for a mining company!!
This is where I believe the author’s self soothing becomes apparent. Through Sarah, the author explains away her environmental guilt (accidents happen, but we try our best and besides, this mine already exists), explains away her white guilt (she respects Native Title and does her due diligence according those bureaucratic institutions, which she also admits aren’t perfect), doesn’t even really feel guilt about being the surviving employee when many who live and breath in this dying town lost their livelihoods. I won’t say there was nothing at all, no talk about these concerns and more, but I wanted much, much more. I think the author may be too close to the subject, would feel her lurching out of that close third person perspective to justify herself to herself, through us.
Without a personal tie to these hauntings, they were so damn buzzfeed! Scary because we understand ghosts to be scary, ghosts because we understand ghosts to glimmer in our peripheral vision and maybe fuck with the lights. So so standard and so impersonal! Coming off reading Hotel World by Ali Smith the other month (which I didn’t even really like that much) these ghosts didn’t hold a candle.
Anyway. In no way was this the worst thing I have ever read. So.
October 12, 2025
A gripping read, finished it in a couple of days. Has elements of a thriller but with good character development and some mild historical fiction. It also explored the problems women face in STEM fields or when working in a male dominated industry. I really enjoyed learning about geology/ mining - the author was a geologist so the book is peppered with knowledge.
October 28, 2025
Hollow Air was one of those books that was close to very good but came up a bit short.
A beautifully written book that provided spectacular mental imagery, I found the story shallow and a bit bland and where there should have been tension, I found none.
Not bad, not great.
A beautifully written book that provided spectacular mental imagery, I found the story shallow and a bit bland and where there should have been tension, I found none.
Not bad, not great.
December 27, 2025
Smashed this book in one day, wow oh wow. What a masterpiece. I’m speechless right now, however I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Wow.
Wow.
October 21, 2025
This debut novel is beautifully written, hauntingly atmospheric, getting under your skin and transporting you into the story. Definitely not what I was expecting of a story set in the tin fields of far North Queensland.
The descriptive writing kept building and building, so carefully layered. It was like the book cover coming alive as you read.
I also loved how Borthwick introduced the parallel story set in 1910 of the two miners who remain buried in the mine. These chapters were not long but it so cleverly balanced with Sarah, the main protagonist’s story. Her isolation and uncertainty of herself.
I wanted to read this in one sitting but actually I think it added to the total enjoyment of this book, having to take in chapters at a time, each chapter leaving me wanting to know what happens next. So well-paced and such a great story!
And the beautiful cover, to the printed page with the well placed image of the storm clouds and the bats throughout, enhances the whole reading experience.
It’s the whole package and @ultimopress has outdone themselves with this book design.
The descriptive writing kept building and building, so carefully layered. It was like the book cover coming alive as you read.
I also loved how Borthwick introduced the parallel story set in 1910 of the two miners who remain buried in the mine. These chapters were not long but it so cleverly balanced with Sarah, the main protagonist’s story. Her isolation and uncertainty of herself.
I wanted to read this in one sitting but actually I think it added to the total enjoyment of this book, having to take in chapters at a time, each chapter leaving me wanting to know what happens next. So well-paced and such a great story!
And the beautiful cover, to the printed page with the well placed image of the storm clouds and the bats throughout, enhances the whole reading experience.
It’s the whole package and @ultimopress has outdone themselves with this book design.
October 19, 2025
This was the latest book sent to me by my online book club, WellRead. I would never have selected this book off the shelf based on its cover or even the blurb on the back but this is one of the reasons I like WellRead; I like to be challenged in my expectations and expand my reading horizons.
The main character in ‘Hollow Air’ is Sarah, a Geologist that works on remote mining sites. Most of the time Sarah works on these sites alone and in the middle of nowhere but occasionally she is joined by a group of (predominantly male) colleagues. Working alone means that Sarah has created a world that is isolated, leaving her unable to feel connections and feeling like an outsider back in her old life. Sarah has a fiancee and friends but she spends so little time with them that she comes to resent and dislike them and their time together and she often longs to be back on site on her own. We see tensions build on the Dulcie Ada site with Sarah, her life, her colleagues, the actual rock and also with the feeling that someone is watching her. Sarah learns of the history of the site and we follow her exploration alongside the historic exploration in interweaving chapters and timelines.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book but I was immersed in the story right from the start. The writing drew me in with relatable characters and tension held throughout. There are elements of a thriller but with good character development and some historical fiction alongside a lot of knowledge about rocks 🙂. I appreciated the exploration of the problems that women face in this type of field or when working in a male dominated industry, I found I could relate to this. I’m not sure I needed all the details about the rocks but it was interesting to learn how people try to fake the findings from the mines in order to profit and the measures in place to try and prevent this.
Overall a really enjoyable read that I devoured in a few days.
The main character in ‘Hollow Air’ is Sarah, a Geologist that works on remote mining sites. Most of the time Sarah works on these sites alone and in the middle of nowhere but occasionally she is joined by a group of (predominantly male) colleagues. Working alone means that Sarah has created a world that is isolated, leaving her unable to feel connections and feeling like an outsider back in her old life. Sarah has a fiancee and friends but she spends so little time with them that she comes to resent and dislike them and their time together and she often longs to be back on site on her own. We see tensions build on the Dulcie Ada site with Sarah, her life, her colleagues, the actual rock and also with the feeling that someone is watching her. Sarah learns of the history of the site and we follow her exploration alongside the historic exploration in interweaving chapters and timelines.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book but I was immersed in the story right from the start. The writing drew me in with relatable characters and tension held throughout. There are elements of a thriller but with good character development and some historical fiction alongside a lot of knowledge about rocks 🙂. I appreciated the exploration of the problems that women face in this type of field or when working in a male dominated industry, I found I could relate to this. I’m not sure I needed all the details about the rocks but it was interesting to learn how people try to fake the findings from the mines in order to profit and the measures in place to try and prevent this.
Overall a really enjoyable read that I devoured in a few days.
October 6, 2025
This is one of those reads that imposes itself upon you, subtly creating a reading bubble that draws you in.
All through this book, I kept on thinking how brave Sarah (main character) is to stay on at the remote mine site by herself.
In doing so, she creates a world that is isolated, unable to feel connections, an outsider back in her old life, her fiancee, a person she is no longer able to connect with.
Ghosts of miners past weigh heavily on Sarah, as does the feeling of being watched 👀.
Strange noises, outlines of somebody watching her, footsteps, lights....... and a mind stretched by isolation.
I felt that this was almost a love story of the mine. Her connection to the site and the bodies held within is hauntingly beautiful in a way.
The mystery of previous miners weaves throughout the book, the mine a constant and haunting threat.
This read is effortless.
All through this book, I kept on thinking how brave Sarah (main character) is to stay on at the remote mine site by herself.
In doing so, she creates a world that is isolated, unable to feel connections, an outsider back in her old life, her fiancee, a person she is no longer able to connect with.
Ghosts of miners past weigh heavily on Sarah, as does the feeling of being watched 👀.
Strange noises, outlines of somebody watching her, footsteps, lights....... and a mind stretched by isolation.
I felt that this was almost a love story of the mine. Her connection to the site and the bodies held within is hauntingly beautiful in a way.
The mystery of previous miners weaves throughout the book, the mine a constant and haunting threat.
This read is effortless.
October 23, 2025
A good Australian story about mining from a geologist’s standpoint. And a female one at that. Nearly 100 years ago, two miners are killed when a mine collapses on them. Sarah, the geologist, is head of a team looking to rework the site.
While the overall tale was good - gripping in parts - there were some things that grated with me. Sarah’s Sydney fiancé is put to one side when a delectable young fellow joins the team. Her best instincts are ignored and she can’t keep her hands off the guy. Spare me…
There is much geological information throughout the book, but not too much for a layperson like myself. Yes, the ending also had some unbelievable parts, when Sarah was trapped down an old mineshaft, but I guess you have to put aside your disbelief occasionally. Needless to say the tale ends quite satisfactorily for most, especially Sarah.
While the overall tale was good - gripping in parts - there were some things that grated with me. Sarah’s Sydney fiancé is put to one side when a delectable young fellow joins the team. Her best instincts are ignored and she can’t keep her hands off the guy. Spare me…
There is much geological information throughout the book, but not too much for a layperson like myself. Yes, the ending also had some unbelievable parts, when Sarah was trapped down an old mineshaft, but I guess you have to put aside your disbelief occasionally. Needless to say the tale ends quite satisfactorily for most, especially Sarah.
February 7, 2026
I really don’t know what to rate this!! Thinking somewhere around 4.25 but maybe 4.5? The start was slow but once it picked up I was really impressed. Sometimes I dislike parallel stories but I think it is quite clever here and I was brought to tears a couple times toward the end. I think my main critique would be regarding the exploration of the Sarah/Scott relationship, felt a little transparently used to set up a narrative. I enjoyed the book a lot more post-Scott but that feels harsh because there wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with him just that Sarah’s narration became a bit more bearable thereafter. The writing is really beautiful and made extra special by Borthwick’s background in geology.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2025
Fabulous! Verity Borthwick shows us how very beautiful a dusty mining site can be. I loved this for her magical descriptions of the landscape and strong sense of place as well as the mystery of the two bodies in the mine. Great characters too. Sarah struggles with the extreme contrast between her lonely but independent existence as mine supervisor and the demands of her boyfriend in Sydney. She feels vulnerable on site yet loves her work as a geologist. The book dips back into history to show us how Samuel and Tom ended up in the mine while Sarah wrestles with both her love life and the strange results of the drill core tests.
October 29, 2025
A truly beautiful & unsettling story that is layered with historical Australian folklore that spans across eras which are centuries apart. Written with a fine balance of dynamic characters who flit between moments of ache, grit, passion & unnerving fragments.
November 24, 2025
Verity Borthwick's description of life as a geologist has confirmed my decision to drop geology after first year! Hollow Air is set on multiple timelines that tie together perfectly, and illustrates the desperation of the human condition.
January 29, 2026
A great read, a female geologist living alone in a remote place, a mystery, a love story. I really enjoyed the short parallel story depicting the mysterious deaths of two miners in 1912 at the same mine site. Well-written and gripping.
August 31, 2025
Absolutely love this book. Highly recommend.
September 23, 2025
Tin mining and off balance people.
October 7, 2025
A perfect FIFO novel. My first but hopefully not my last
October 9, 2025
This was a book club read. I didn’t like any of the characters and whilst the historical / present day mix was well done it didn’t grab me and tell me anything.
October 13, 2025
A great read. Very evocative of a place, and properly haunting at times. I very much enjoyed it.
October 17, 2025
The depiction of the haunting isolation of the outback here and a FIFO miner is spot on. Lots about geology which may or may not be a draw card.
November 1, 2025
So glad I didn't read this in the dead of winter.
December 26, 2025
Dunia Tambang yang Gelap dan Penuh Misteri.
Simak review lengkapnya => https://medium.com/booknotations/duni...
Simak review lengkapnya => https://medium.com/booknotations/duni...
February 6, 2026
A well written story with themes of isolation and not quite fitting in
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews