That Deadman Dance
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Big-hearted, moving and richly rewarding, That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia. In playful, musical prose, the book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people and the first European settlers. The novel’s hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. He is even welcomed into a prosperous local white family where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a liaison with a native.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Kim Scott’s poetic, imaginative re-working of the encounter between the Noongar people of Western Australia and the English settlers, allows us to see the heart-breaking reality of colonization against the imaginative possibilities of what might have been – Nominated by staff from our statewide network of libraries. This novel is of high literary merit and has won The Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for best book in South-East Asia and the Pacific – Set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia, this book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal people and the first European settlers, and provides a fascinating and powerful portrait of Australia’s earliest years. Winner, Commonwealth Writers Regional Prize; shortlisted for Miles Franklin award.