International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award

"Why do it? Tom thought. What pushed sensible mature people to leave a comfortable life and spend thousands of dollars of their life savings to take risks in the middle of nowhere ... Broome ... Fitzroy Crossing ... Darwin ... The Centre .... It is the mid-nineties and Tom and Zoe Drewe, like thousands of others are 'going around Australia'. Their journey , begun in certainty and on their terms, takes on its own momentum and compulsions, until they are driven as much as driving, and increasingly acted upon by the power and histories of the land whose surface they cross. As with any journey there are risks of exposure: of unsought insights, startling new perspectives. In Going Inland Tom and Zoe are confronted by the emptiness and silence of the interior - and the silences protecting the surfaces of their long marriage. Unexpectedly, they are navigating in unknown terrain. Finally - and unavoidably - they must face the question of their place in their own country; the long-reaching effects of their ancestors' migratory beginnings and of reconciling who they are with what they have discovered. Compelling, moving, disturbing, this important and timely novel confronts the dark side of the Australian psyche, exploring what it means to be Australian, and the nature of belonging.
Pat Jacobs was born in Collie, Western Australia. An historian, fiction writer and reviewer, she has received awards for both history and short fiction published in Australian journals and anthologies. Her first book, Mister Neville, a biography of A. O. Neville, was published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press in 1990 and shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Award in 1991.

Going Inland by Pat Jacobs Nominated by:

Going Inland by
Pat Jacobs

Nominated by: