Review: Red Dirt

The debut novel from acclaimed short story writer E.M. Reapy focuses on three young Irish people in Australia, fleeing the economic ruins of their home country and their own unhappy lives. In this promised land, stunned by the heat and the vast arid space of the interior, they each try to escape their past in a chaotic world of backpacker hostels, huge fruit farms and squalid factories, surrounded by new friends who are even more damaged and dangerous than they are themselves. Endless supplies of cheap drink and drugs loosen what little sense of responsibility they have, and a spiral of self-destructive behaviour forces each of them to face up to the reality of their lives. Red Dirt is a compelling story of the consequences of impulsive choices and of the places where they lead. (June)