To the Highlands

It is 1968. All around the world people are marching, protesting, fighting for freedom and free love.

Jack Muir arrives in the islands fresh out of Grammar School: a failure, a virgin, and a reluctant employee of The Colonial Bank of Australia.

Life in the islands is raw, sensuous, real. Here, the white man takes what he wants. But the veneer of whiteness is flimsy, and brutality never far from the surface.

To be free, you must set free. So says George Kanluna, future leader of the islands. Yet there is a world of difference between freedom and those things you unleash in others – and in yourself.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Doust firmly establishing himself as a rare contemporary voice …’ The Australian

‘Doust works deftly: he disturbs us then he makes us laugh and with our prim censure destabilised helps us move toward an altogether more complicated and perhaps more compassionate attitude.’ Kim Scott

‘To the Highlands is a short dense assured and incidentally poignant performance that has been worth the wait.’ Canberra Times

‘There is a relentless rawness to this book that make its moments of tenderness hit their mark even more keenly.’ Books+Publishing

‘Doust creates a distinctive Australian voice and the novel abounds in small and telling cameos.’ Sydney Morning Herald / The Age

‘…gritty and confronting…’ West Australian