Emily Paull

The Drowner by Robert Drewe (ISBN 0-7329-0858-2) Pan Macmillan, 1996 The best books leave you gasping for air, drowning in jealousy that you did not write them.  They fill you with the need to reread them, to prove to yourself the assumptions you have made.  They make sense only in a place of consciousness which exists in the space between reader and writer, and linger like perfume in the air a while after you've finished. Robert Drewe's The Drowner is one of the best books I have read this year. I stumbled across it by chance.  Looking for scholarly material on The Shark Net, I came across a discussion of water themes in Drewe's work.  If you've read The Drowner you'll know why this is.  The book powerfully evokes themes of water as an instrument of chaos, life and passion; something to be both feared and worshipped.  From references to Shakespeare's Hamlet to recollections of Western Australia's  past, Drewe paints a picture of tragedy and hop...

Coondardoo by Katharine Susannah Prichard Printed and bound by Halstead Press, Sydney (1956) First published by Jonathan Cape 1929 In the early decades of the Twentieth Century, on a rural North West property, two children grow up.  One is an Aboriginal girl named Coonardoo, who charms those around her with her disturbing beauty; the other is Hugh "Youie" Watt, the son of the station owner.  Hugh and Coonardoo are drawn to one another but must never act upon their feelings.  Relations between 'gins' and white men are looked upon unfavourably by most.  Hugh's detestable neighbour, Sam Geary, believes that all men like to indulge, but no one is honest enough to admit to it, and he bets Hugh that it is only a matter of time before Hugh and Coonardoo consummate their feelings... and if Hugh won't, Sam will. Widely regarded as one of Western Australia's first novelists, Katharine Susannah Prichard has earned her place in the canon with her unique tak...