Two strangers reach an opal mining town in outback Queensland, searching for a stepdaughter and a son who have mysteriously disappeared. There is a heavy, guilty feel to the hot, parched-dry town where the drinkers on the pub verandah wait to take stock of the foreigners before returning to the sheep stations or to the stake-outs in the opal fields. This is Outer Maroo. population 87. Here two opposing cultures - the rough-diamond, boozing bushies and the teetotaller, church-going fundamentalists - used to co-exist peaceably. Until the arrival of the cult messiah Oyster.
A stunning novel from one of the most powerful and innovative writers in English today.
