But in order to tell this story,which explores the multiple realities of Australia,Wright uses a distinct and sometimes challenging perspective,in which scenes and the familiar comforts of dramatic structure are subordinated to a kind of self-aware epic vision,as though the unfolding mysteries ofPraiseworthy are being observed from outer space by an all-seeing,empathic god-figure.
The novel begins with the arrival of an environmental anomaly,a “haze” that takes up permanent residency above the north Australian town of Praiseworthy,where it becomes an anti-miracle signalling the end of days at the hands of the disturbed ancestral spirits of country. The plot revolves around the Steel family,fringe-dwellers in Praiseworthy,whose disparate lives take on the epic magnitude of Dreamtime myths and legends. But much like Wright’sThe Swan Book – her bleakest speculation of a version of Australia in ruin – the use of Dreaming produces a nightmarish world.
The Steel family’s patriarch is a man of many names,including Planet (“because he was always talking planetary stuff”),Widespread (“for the breadth of his ideas”),and his birth name,Cause Man. He becomes ostracised for spreading prophecies of doom “about the destruction of the globe” and the “wrathful planet”. His popularity takes a mortal hit when he pursues Aboriginal economic independence with a transport conglomerate that involves herding thousands of donkeys into Praiseworthy.
Although Cause Man is convinced he will be the first Aboriginal billionaire,and that his plan will help “his people ride straight through the century on the back of the burning planet,and live to tell the tale on the other side”,his wife,Dance Steel,thinks her husband has gone mad:“Why had they survived since time immemorial? Their ancient Law. That’s what. This was what took care of business. Not idiots.”
While Cause Man travels through the Australian desert in search of the “God donkey”,and while Dance plans to escape to China by contacting people smugglers on the web,their sons Aboriginal Sovereignty and Tommyhawk experience crises of their own. Their fates are tied up in two epidemics sweeping through Praiseworthy,one make-believe,the other disbelieved by the white Australian government:an epidemic of child suicides,and one of paedophiles.
One early morning Aboriginal Sovereignty walks into the ocean to drown himself while Tommyhawk – who Cause Man labels the “assimilationist fascist” – stands on the shore to wish his elder brother good riddance. Tommyhawk idolises the white Australian way of life,causing his mind to be “eaten alive by a thought a virus,a pandemic,where every Aboriginal child was at risk”.