ABOUT THE BOOK

In her flat above Drylands' newsagency, Janet Deakin is writing a book for the world's last reader. Little has changed here in fifty years, except for the coming of cable TV. Loneliness is almost a religion, and still everyone knows your business. But the town is being outmanoeuvred by drought and begins to empty, pouring itself out like water into sand.

Small minds shrink even smaller in the vastness of the land. One man is forced out by council rates and bigotry; another sells his property, risking the lot to build his dream. And all of them are shadowed by violence of some sort - these people whose only victory over the town is in leaving it.

Thea Astley is one of Australia's most celebrated writers. Three times she has won the Miles Franklin Award - in 1962 for 'The Well Dressed Explorer', in 1965 for 'The Slow Natives', and in 1972 for 'The Acolyte'. In 1989 she was awarded the Patrick White Award. Other awards include the 1986 ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award for 'It's Raining in Mango', the 1990 NSW Premier's Prize for 'Reaching Tin River', and the 1996 'Age' Book of the Year Award and the FAW Australian Unity Award for 'The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow'.

Thea Astley held a position as Fellow in Australian Literature at Macquarie University until 1980, when she retired to write full time. She now lives in the hills on the south coast of New South Wales.