Winner, Dobbie Award, Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers,
1999
'The world had changed. As far as the eye could see, the earth was
red. It wasn't orange, or soil red, or brown red, or perhaps all of
them at once. It was profound rich red, glittering deeply in the
mid-morning light. She was vaguely aware of having known that
somewhere in Australia the land was this colour but the reality of
it was startling and stunning.'
Hiam is the story of a journey through both a psychic and
geographic landscape, a journey through disintegration and loss.
Hiam, an Arab migrant woman, abandons Adelaide to unravel her life
and memories on the road North after her family and identity have
been destroyed. In the course of the novel she weaves an identity
out of past, present, stories, dreams and the Australian landscape
with which she engages for the first time.
On one level, this is the story of a migrant's experience in a
strange land, a novel which explores the pressures, fragilites and
strengths of exiled communities. It is also a story of universal
human grief, individual courage and the will, not only to survive,
but to live fully in the world.
Winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
