Drylands

Janet Deakin has kept the newsagency going in Drylands, a small, failing town in central Queensland, since her farmer husband Ted died. At night, upstairs, she works on a novel for readers she suspects no longer exist, now that everyone stares at screens. Her musings open and close the book and link its chapters, each following another life in or passing through the town: Franzi Massig, caught in bureaucratic tangles; the writer Evie; Jim Randler, whose farm is failing, and Toff, his neighbour's teenage son; the Aboriginal man Benny Shoforth; the frayed housewife Lannie Cunneen; and Joss, a frightened barmaid. Their stories cross against the dust of a town where life is harsh, often violent, and slowly running out.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

Australia

First published

1999

Author's age

74 when first published

ISBN

9780670886197 (Viking, Australia)

9781925603576 (Text Publishing, Australia)

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