“Sometimes our gravest burdens, the weights we drag with us along life’s potholed road, are the key to our liberation. For a generation of readers accustomed to the niceties of political correctness, The Shiralee may seem as brutal as it is lyrical. But with its insight into the way a child can, by the provocation of her own vulnerability and by sheer force of love, bring a grown man to his senses, The Shiralee is a novel that still rings true after more than half a century.” Tim Winton

Synopsis: Two mismatched figures traipse between the plains towns of New South Wales. Tough man Macauley is an itinerant worker used to a solitary life on the road, nights by the campfire and holding his own when the bar brawls break out. Struggling to keep up is four-year-old Buster – his shiralee, his burden, his daughter – plucked from her neglectful mother out of spite. Macauley sees Buster as a curb on his unshackled life but her buoyant spirit and unwavering trust in him threaten to soften his hard edges for the very first time.

Emotional, exciting, funny and punctuated by scenes of incredible tension, The Shiralee is a novel of life and companionship on the road and of the power of the ties that bind.

About the Author: D’Arcy Niland was born in Glen Innes, New South Wales in 1917. As a young man Niland roamed in search of work, taking many different jobs before settling on writing full-time at the age of 25, completing six novels before his death in 1967. The Shiralee was his first novel and is still published by Penguin Classics in Australia.

Publication date: November 6th, 2014
Price: £9.99

Available from Mr B’s Emporium and all good high street bookshops.