That Deadman Dance

Australian novelist Scott’s (Benang) complex Commonwealth-winning (South East Asia/Pacific Region) third novel begins in 1833 with Bobby Wabalanginy, part of the Aboriginal Noongar people, befriending early white English settlers who’ve arrived in southern Australia to establish the port of King George Town. Among his white associates are the military surgeon Dr. Joseph Cross, the merchant Geordie Chaine, and Chaine’s young daughter, Christine, who Bobby perhaps likes too much. Characterized by Dr. Cross as “animated and theatrical,” Bobby maintains an upbeat attitude that will serve him well once race relations sour. Until he dies, Cross is a mentor to Bobby, and then the Chaines fill the position. Short, titled chapters group into four parts demarcated by sweeps of nonlinear time, from two years to four. Always piquant and lyrical, with some Aboriginal dialect words translated and some not, Scott is at his most picturesque when Bobby assists the whalers, bringing boom times to “blackfellas” and “whitefellas” alike. The historical interaction between these two cultures in a changing 19th-century Australia is given full play in Scott’s ambitious, elegiac storytelling (the author’s mother is white and his father Aboriginal). Agent: Kathleen Anderson, Anderson Literary Management. (Mar.)