Lew McCleod is in itinerant shearer who roams the drought-stricken Western Australia backblocks with his mentor, Painter Hayes. They wind up at the run-down Drysdale Downs station, where they are engaged to shear the recently-widowed John Drysdale's flock. There Lew encounters Drysdale's young daughter Clara.

As Daisley tells Lew's story, he recounts a parallel story of a pregnant dingo bitch on the run from shooters, trying to find a safe place to whelp, with an injured male in tow. I found these chapters the best part of the novel: Daisley completely inhabits the animal, capturing its instincts and the landscape through its eyes.

If not for this second thread, this novel could have been like so many other outback stories, but Daisley has written something remarkable here. He draws his characters well, especially Painter and Abraham, although his other main characters are less original. Still, his eye for the Australian landscape and for the behaviour of the animals within it is unerring, and he describes these with great sensibility. ( )

Raw, sparse and beautiful, just like the Western Australian outback. ( )

a true outback story about life and love in the Australian outback, i didn't like the dogs feelings and thoughts at the beginning of the book but found it intriguing throughout the rest of the book , about 2 shearers ( Lew and Painter) and their hard lives and their work at Drysdale Downs and John Drysdale and his daughter Clara and their recently deceased Mother , quite graphic in some parts and i found it quite upsetting , but a great book . ( )