The Marsh Birds
Allen&Unwin 2005

Winner of the Asher Literary Award 2005. Shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book South East Asia and Pacific Region 2006; NSW Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction 2006; National Fiction Award, Festival Awards for Literature 2006; Colin Roderick Award 2006; the Age Book of the Year 2005; Highly Commended Australian Literary Society Gold Medal 2006. Dhurgham is the adored youngest son of a well-to-do family. He finds himself alone at age twelve, not knowing what has happened to his family. He is at first at the mercy of an adult world in Damascus that he cannot understand, then at the mercy of a system in Australia that would make of him both victim and criminal. He fights his slow degradation. He resists with his youth, his innate self-respect, his rage and ultimately with just being alive. Dhurgham shows what it is to be a human being when everything around you has conspired to make you less than human. This is a story of global journeys and statelessness, spanning Iraq, Syria, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and the oceans between them. What happens when no body, no land, no community will own you, when there is no place on earth any more for you? Who do you be when you do not belong? Dhurgham is a protagonist of the new world. Published in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 a memorable novel, fierce in its passions yet without an ounce of false sentiment. J. M. Coetzee Marvellous. A brave, beautiful and terribly moving book. Helen Garner For all its serious content, this is not a depressing or oppressive book. Throughout, Dhurghams adolescent sensibilities, hopes and desires give The Marsh Birds a certain levity a lesser writer might not have managed. This is a tightly woven tale, beautifully narrated, genuine and believable. Elizabeth Meryment To buy a copy click here