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This is a rather controversial book, published in 2001. The two authors drove across Australia from NSW and established themselves in Broome. They spent their days talking to locals and then published the conversations verbatim. One described the trial of an indecent assault in some detail. There was a big outcry, which led the publishers to withdraw it from sale. They pulped all the copies they retrieved.
By the time I heard about it in 2001, there were no copies in bookshops or libraries. This has been the case for years. There is a copy in our State Library, but you have to make a special request to see it.
Now, there exists Bookgrocer an outlet resembling Amazon selling books online. They advertised 2 copies on their website so I quickly snapped one up.
I read it from cover to cover. There is an incredibly long list of characters, major and minor: too many to remember. One of them was known to me back then: Alison, who was Librarian at the High School in Broome. They portrayed her as a “jolly hockey sticks” sort of girl, which was more or less correct. She is no longer with us, having died from cancer a few years ago, but not before travelling the length of the Trans Siberian Express.
I found that the book seemed obsessed with race relations, with constant comments about black vs white, as if this was the predominant theme in the town. On all my visits to Broome, this is something that never crossed my mind. Broome is just a multicultural place and more interesting as a result. Perhaps I’ll write more on this aspect when I get there.
I’ve also been reading The Amur River by Colin Thubron. He is an excellent travel writer and I hoped to pick up some hints! Moreover, at my age, he travelled along this river, from its source to the sea, suffering terrible hardships along the way and still able to tell the tale. Now there’s a role model!
