Bugger

We’ve been following the work of Michael Mohammed Ahmad since his debut, The Tribe, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Readings Prize for New Australian Writing in 2014. Since then, among many accolades, he has also been shortlisted twice for the Miles Franklin Award, and continues his work as the founding director of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement which has nurtured many of Australia’s most interesting emerging talents. Bugger is Ahmad's fourth novel, and like all of his writing, this is a beautifully crafted, thoughtful, generous piece of work, but readers should know ahead of reading that this novel is about childhood sexual abuse.

Hamoodi tells the story, a 10-year-old whose daily life is ordinary enough, dodging bullies, pretending to fit in but sort of never able to, learning about the many (many) things he doesn’t know or has got wrong along the way, imagining intricate games involving the heroic Power Rangers. He is loyal to his family and lives with his mother, but his father is absent, and his yearning for him is painfully apparent. Hamoodi is an unforgettable character, and Ahmad captures his embodied moment of childhood so perfectly, the precious and fleeting in-betweenness of being 10, before events change him forever. For the adult reader, there is a palpable sense of unease throughout the book, our worldliness picks up on the things that are not quite right in the scenarios Hamoodi describes. The reader’s helplessness in the hands of the writer and his characters is part of the experience of reading this novel.

Recommending this book is a task I take seriously, knowing that the terrain of its story is painfully present in many families, and so it’s not a book that everyone can or will want to approach. But for those who, as I do, read to learn, to understand, I can’t recommend this book more. Ahmad is an incredibly gifted writer. The form of this novel is outstanding, its lightness of touch belying the hardworking craft behind it, and Ahmad’s respect and care for the reader’s experience is clear on every page, along with his desire to create a moment of empathy that might be the seed that starts a conversation, opens eyes, changes lives. I’m very grateful to have read it.