Walkabout

by Louis Nowra, Jane Mills (Editor)

A mentally disturbed man takes his 14-year-old daughter and his six-year-old son into the desert supposedly for a picnic. He abruptly goes berserk, tries to shoot them, sets fire to the car and kills himself. A young Aboriginal man guides them in the way of survival in what becomes a ritual walkabout during which he courts the girl.

Genres: Fiction

85 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Louis Nowra (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. His most significant plays are Così, Byzantine Flowers, Summer of the Aliens, Radiance, and The Golden Age. In 2007 he completed the The Boyce Trilogy for Griffin Theatre Company, consisting of The Woman with Dog's Eyes, The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney. Many of his plays have been filmed.[1]
He was born as Mark Doyle in Melbourne. He changed his name to Louis Nowra in the early 1970s. He studied at Melbourne's La Trobe University without earning a degree. In his memoir, The Twelfth of Never, Nowra claimed that he left the course due to a conflict with his professor on Patrick White's The Tree of Man. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s when his plays began to attract attention.
His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows and the five part The Divine Hammer aired on the ABC in 2003.[2]
In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, Bad Dreaming.
Nowra has been studied extensively in Veronica Kelly's work The Theatre of Louis Nowra.
He resides in Sydney with his wife, author Mandy Sayer.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel for the young reader is not so much about survival as understanding cultural difference and respecting it.