"The Shiralee" tells the story of the itinerant rural worker Macauley - sometimes described as a 'swagman' or 'swaggie' - who suddenly finds himself taking responsibility for his child. Having returned from 'walkabout', he finds his wife entwined in the arms of another, and so he takes his four-year-old daughter, Buster, with him. The child is the 'shiralee', an Aboriginal word meaning 'burden'. In their time together, father and daughter explore new depths of understanding and bonding. The barren landscapes of the outback are central to the swagman's love for his country and provide a backdrop to the richness of his developing relationship with Buster.

The Shiralee

Literature & Fiction

D'Arcy Niland

Contemporary

Penguin

The Shiralee: Popular Penguins

Literary

Penguin Group Australia

<p>Stories of scarifying suspense, haunting uncertainty, and disquieting terror from the fanciful imaginations of nineteenthand twentieth-century English and American writers</p>

Some Things Weird And Wicked: 12 Stories to Chill Your Bones

John Bell Clayton

Mary E. Wilkins

Vin Packer

Frank Stockton

Julian, Hawthorne

Jack, London

Robert-Louis-Stevenson

Wilkie, Collins

Children's Books

Pantheon Books

Gold in the Streets

White Lion Publrs

Buccaneer Books

Shiralee

Fox, Finch & Tepper

A shiralee is a swag, a burden, a bloody millstone - and that's what four-year-old Buster is to her father, Macauley. He takes the child on the road with him to spite his wife, but months pass and still no word comes to ask for the little girl back. Strangers to each other at first, father and daughter drift aimlessly through the dusty towns of Australia, sleeping rough and relying on odd jobs for food and money. Buster's resilience and trust slowly erode Macauley's resentment, and when he's finally able to get rid of her, he realises he can't let his shiralee go. In evocative prose that vividly conjures images of rural Australia, The Shiralee reveal an understanding of the paradoxical nature of the burdens we carry, creates a moving portrait of fatherhood, told with gruff humour and a gentle pathos.

Shiralee, The

Genre Fiction

Bolinda Audio

Shiralee - bk1316

Ullstein Verlag

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by D'Arcy Niland. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by D'Arcy Niland