Like Alex Miller’s awardwinning Journey to the Stone Country, Meme McDonald’s new book explores the relationship between a European woman and an Aboriginal man, and is about place and identity. It’s an exuberant, joyous novel despite it looking at some difficult issues. After the death of her fiancé in a crop-dusting accident, Cathy decides to spend some time with her childhood friend, Margie, who’s working in Alice Springs. Margie just wants to have fun, to find a love – or loves! Cathy wants to retreat and work out what she wants to do with her life. While she’s waiting, she gets a job as a barmaid. Max, the owner of the pub, seems out of place both in Alice Springs and in his role as a publican in a rough pub; he lends Cathy books and teaches her about wine and art, but there is another side to Max that she discovers when she meets Jay, an announcer at the local Aboriginal radio station. Jay has mastered the art of adapting his character to suit his environment; as his relationship with Cathy develops he starts to let down his guard, but there is a part of him that he keeps hidden from Cathy. Cathy, too, is unsure of what she wants or expects from the relationship. Her friendship with Jay reveals the underside of Alice Springs and the latent racism that lies just below the surface of its European society. Love Like Water is like a breath of fresh air, a truly Australian original.

Mark Rubbo is the Managing Director of Readings Books, Film & Music.