Book description
>But slowly - by design and by hazard - things begin to change. Not
everyone is so pleased with the progress of the white colonists.
Livestock mysteriously starts to disappear, crops are destroyed, there
are 'accidents' and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose
ever-stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's
Elders decide they must respond in kind, and Bobby is forced to take
sides, inexorably drawn into a series of events that will for ever
change the future of his country.
That Deadman Dance
is haunted by tragedy, as most stories of first contact between
European and native peoples are. But through Bobby's life, this novel
exuberantly explores a moment in time when things might have been
different, when black and white lived together in amazement rather than
fear of the other, and when the world suddenly seemed twice as large and
twice as promising.> Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize,
South East Asia and Pacific Region An enchanting and authentic book,
giving us an insider's view of Australia before it was Australia...
Enormously readable, humane, proud and subtle. Thomas Keneally, author
of Schindler's Ark,The Great Shame, and A Commonwealth of Thieves An
extraordinary work, both realist and visionary, a historical-lyrical
recreation of early encounters between black and white on the south
coast of Western Australia. Scott's scope if vast and his way of telling
complex. Think Melville -- never a straight line toward conclusions and
perhaps few conclusions. That Deadman Dance is a novel to read, recite,
and reread, to linger over as Scott peels back layer after layer of
meaning... Exhilarating. Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) In That
Deadman Dance, it is the author's imagination and his graceful prose
that shine brightest... Politically charged and historically astute,
[the novel] possesses a furious poise and yet is generous in spirit.
Australian Book Review >But slowly - by design and by hazard -
things begin to change. Not everyone is so pleased with the progress of
the white colonists. Livestock mysteriously starts to disappear, crops
are destroyed, there are 'accidents' and injuries on both sides. As the
Europeans impose ever-stricter rules and regulations in order to keep
the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind, and Bobby is
forced to take sides, inexorably drawn into a series of events that will
for ever change the future of his country.
That Deadman Dance
is haunted by tragedy, as most stories of first contact between
European and native peoples are. But through Bobby's life, this novel
exuberantly explores a moment in time when things might have been
different, when black and white lived together in amazement rather than
fear of the other, and when the world suddenly seemed twice as large and
twice as promising.>
