Hard Yards

by Melissa Lucashenko

Roo Glover has two highly desirable talents - he can fight, and he can run like the clappers. In the inner-city's harsh code there are losers and survivors, and Roo's a survivor. He's made it through adoption, through juvenile detention, through poverty. He's an athlete in training, aching towards the dream of Olympic qualification. He's even coping with being white in the turbulent Aboriginal family of his girlfriend. But when cousin Stanley dies in custody, and Roo finds his father the same week, trouble starts to catch up with him.

Genres: Fiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Melissa Lucashenko is an Australian writer of European and Goorie heritage. She received an honours degree in public policy from Griffith University in 1990. In 1997, she published her first novel Steam Pigs. It won the Dobbie Literary Award for Australian women’s fiction and was shortlisted for both the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award and the regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Steam Pigs was followed by the Aurora Prize–winning Killing Darcy, a novel for teenagers, and Hard Yards, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Courier-Mail Book of the Year and the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Too Flash, a teenage novel about class and friendship, was released in 2002. Her latest novel is Mullumbimby published by UQP. Melissa lives between Brisbane and the Bundjalung nation.

Reviews

[Nick Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

This is the story of a young man who is facing challenges on all fronts. He has been living in the aftermath of the death in custody of his girlfriend's brother, and is now learning about his father for the first time. Lucashenko explores the themes of race, death, poverty, and family within this turbulent novel - there is no shying away from the ugly and confronting parts of these themes. She deftly captures the language, vocabulary, and emotions of her subjects to create raw and human characters.

For me, this novel's plot absolutely flew. I was reading a few pages whenever I had the chance. It is a highly underrated book and I wish it was more widely known.

[Davida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprise ending, well written book.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 1999. Roo can run. He’s been running for years away from trouble. He survived the foster system and all other troubles. Now his mate Stanley is dead, an Aboriginal death in custody, and Roo meets his dad in that same week.

This is Lucashenko’s debut from my understanding. This novel debuted in 1999. And man, did she knock it out of the park from the get go! The powerful hits this book provides whilst providing a step back lens as Roo is a white character closely linked with an Aboriginal family he provides a different view on Aboriginal death in custody. If you’ve read it, let me know as I’d love to discuss more in depth with fellow fans! If you’ve read Too Much Lip, Lucaschenko’s most recent novel, and loved it, you’ll likely love this one too!

[Kimberley Kanages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.
Being a Southsider myself, what's not to love about a story about home.
But more importantly, it's an important fictional account of deaths in custody and a boys reconciliation with who he is, what family means, and what matters most to him.
I love Melissa's writing in the way she connects these important issues and our history in such an honest, real way.