Drewe, Robert

(Australian, 1943– )

Drewe has worked as a journalist and travelled widely in the Pacific and Far East. His fiction explores Australian themes in a range of geographical and historical settings. Start with the short story collection The Bodysurfers (1983), depicting the hedonistic, materialistic lives of Australians whose culture revolves around the beach. The novel The Drowner (Australia, 1996) tells the story of Will Dance (skilled in the ancient Wiltshire art of drowning land) who becomes an engineer taking water to the Australian desert. The book is poetic and rich with watery images and tales, but this style is less successful for the love-story between Will and Angelina, which feels dreamily distant, and fails to compel the reader.

Murray Bail, Peter Carey  JR