A New Kind of Dreaming

By Anthony Eaton

Blurb

"You want to hear a story?"
"Eh?"
"This town., it's full of stories. Some aboriginal, some white, some Malay and Indonesian. All sorts of different ideas. I reckon you might need to hear one of them."
When the court sent Jamie Riley to Port Barren, he hadn't expected much - thought he'd just serve out his time and get out. He hadn't counted on being drawn into the town's murky past, into a web of secrets, lies and murder which might well cost him much more than just his freedom.
This is the story of a boy's journey to reveal a buried secret, and of a town too scared of its past to face its future.
It's a story for anyone who dreams...

The themes and issues in this novel include:

 The outback / survival
 The abuse of authority and power
 Corruption
 Justice
 The treatment of refugees
 Conflict and confrontation
 The different faces of isolation
 Stereotyping and labelling
 spirituality

Prelude : Awakening

1. “The boat was dead” – What is the effect of this opening line? What mood/tone does it establish?
2. What is the tone of the following paragraph? Give examples of words or phrases that led you to this conclusion.
3. How do you think the 6 men felt when they saw the ‘dark shape’ in the water?
4. “he stood alone” – What does this suggest about the man?
5. Why do you think the older man wanted to look around the other boat before calling the Coastguard?
6. How did Mike feel when he boarded the other boat (6)?
7. “The simple instrument panel looked like it had been attacked … side of the boat” – Based on the information in this paragraph, what do you think may have happened?
8. What did Mike see when he went down below? How did he react? How do you think you would have reacted seeing that in front of you?
9. “a hand grabbed his shoulder” – What happened next? 10. “Elliot was smiling” (10) – Why do you think he was smiling? What do you think this says about the type of man Elliot is?
11. What twist do we learn in the final sentence in the prelude? How do you think Mike and Elliot would have reacted if they had been aware of this?
12. What do you think the term “Awakening” is referring to?

Vocabulary

pulse, diesel, sinister, silhouette, throttle, violently, retching, hulk, stern, idiot, hoarse, surge, nervous, dorsal, undignified, pervaded, nausea, insistent, exertion, corpse, emaciated, forensics, seeting, strewn

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