The Valley
In the furthest reaches of the Kimberley highlands young Dancer Jirroo unravels four generations worth of mysteries and secrets, in search of his lost mother.
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Paperback: RRP $27.99
Available as E-book
Published 2018, PP 256
ISBN 9781925591187
A murder in the remote bush in 1916 sparks a chain of events that will haunt a family for generations. Hidden in the refuge of a secret valley, a tiny community lives unknown to the outside world. When, a century later, Broome schoolboy Dancer falls foul of the local bikie gang, he and his father head up the Gibb River Road. Here, in a maze of rugged ranges and remote outstation communities, Dancer begins to unravel the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of Milly Rider, the mother he never knew, who vanished just a few months after he was born. His grandfather, the old stockman Two Bob Walker from Highlands Station, is the key link in the chain. But Two Bob has spent a lifetime holding his secrets close, and even he does not know all the story; the valley hides its secrets well. As Dancer learns the ways of his mother’s country, he uncovers a precious inheritance – one not even those closest to Milly expected to find.
From the author
This was my first ‘proper novel’ for adult readers. Although it has its roots in an earlier children’s novel, Barefoot Kids, I still wonder about where the story came from. It takes place almost entirely in the world of tiny, extremely remote Indigenous communities; a world that it totally unfamiliar to most Australians.
The crafting of it grew out of my long involvement with the Bunuba mob. The research took me to some astounding country in the most out of the way corners of the Kimberley highlands. This gave me the creative freedom to imagine the internal worlds, the backstories, and the everyday lives of the peoples of that particular world.
I deeply love the story I found, once I let the chains loose. The backstory of Billy Noakes, aka The Billygoat, and his brood may seem to stretch the bounds, but to me – having walked that country – it feels completely plausible. A sliver of an old, obscure, unknown Australia that survives into modern times, and recasts modern lives.
Research for The Valley: at an unnamed gorge on the upper reaches of the Fitzroy River, way beyond Dimond Gorge, 2007. (Photo: Tony Gavranich)
Reviews
“The Valley deftly disentangles the accumulated driftwood of secrets, lies and fragmentary memory to reveal the redemptive power of coming to terms with our past. Steve Hawke draws us into a world that is respectfully and honestly grounded in decades of living in the Kimberley and working with Aboriginal communities, and in his own unique voice and humanity.”
“Set in the Kimberley, this riveting, multi-generational tale evokes people and country with clarity … The Valley couldn’t have been written without [Hawke’s] reverence for country. The story’s built upon those colossal cornerstones of humanity: love, longing, betrayal and grief – but it’s shaded a uniquely Kimberley hue … Hawke’s dialogue is dextrously constructed, true to the rhythms of the Kimberley and distinctly Australian.”
“You want to find out, you need to know, you really do. Because by now Dancer, Andy, Two Bob and all the rest of them have, through the occult science of good writing, got under your skin. If the structure of the story is complicated to begin with, the quality of the writing is natural and seamless … The quiet drama of the narrative is enough.”
“… Masterful storytelling as powerful as the Fitzroy River in flood.”
“The Valley, is a tender and sensitive novel … Hawke’s deep knowledge of the area and its history provides a sense of authenticity to the story, and his sympathetic characters endear themselves to the reader … Like Kim Scott’s Taboo, this is a story of survival, laced with great sadness, but also a gentle humour. It is a good story, well told.”
“A sweeping epic of a novel … The Valley is also imbued with a strong and authentic sense of place … The Kimberley really comes alive in this novel, and if you haven’t been, it’ll make you want to go there. A big-hearted and sensitively told story, The Valley is a tale of love and loss, of family and the importance of owning your past and finding your identity. A highly recommended read.”
“Steve Hawke … handles the Kimberley as surefootedly as a native son but with the observant eye of the outsider he was when he arrived there in the 1970s … The story is subtle and told with a restraint that adds to its power. There is hardly a bad sentence or a false note: a remarkable achievement by a novelist old enough to know universal truths.”
“… there is something astonishingly truthful about this story … The Valley is extremely rewarding reading.”