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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2019, 464 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2020, 480 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Karen Lewis
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An utterly wonderful debut novel of love, crime, magic, fate and a boy's coming of age, set in 1980s Australia and infused with the originality, charm, pathos, and heart of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
The mind can take you anywhere you want to go
Eli Bell's life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli's life is Slim - a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes - who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother.
Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a seedy suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli's path - most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane's legendary drug dealer.
But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom - all before starting high school.
A story of brotherhood, true love, family, and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe is the tale of an adolescent boy on the cusp of discovering the man he will be. Powerful and kinetic, Trent Dalton's debut is sure to be one of the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novels you will experience.
Boy Writes Words
Your end is a dead blue wren.
'Did you see that, Slim?'
'See what?'
'Nothing.'
Your end is a dead blue wren. No doubt about it. Your. End.
No doubt about it. Is. A. Dead. Blue. Wren
*
The crack in Slim's windscreen looks like a tall and armless stickman bowing to royalty. The crack in Slim's windscreen looks like Slim. His windscreen wipers have smeared a rainbow of old dirt over to my passenger side. Slim says a good way for me to remember the small details of my life is to associate moments and visions with things on my person or things in my regular waking life that I see and smell and touch often. Body things, bedroom things, kitchen things. This way I will have two reminders of any given detail for the price of one.
That's how Slim beat Black Peter. That's how Slim survived the hole. Everything had two meanings, one for here, here being where he was then, cell D9, 2 Division, Boggo Road Gaol, and another for there, that boundless and unlocked universe ...
Debut novelist Trent Dalton has crafted an alluring and literary account of the coming-of-age of two brothers who manage to thrive despite their parents' destructive habits. Boy Swallows Universe calls to mind other memorable child heroes like Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield. The novel will likely appeal to fans of Cormac McCarthy (cited by the author as a literary influence) as well...continued
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(Reviewed by Karen Lewis).
A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
Joyous. Simply joyous. I hugged myself as I read it. My heart raced, swelled, burst; my eyes leaked tears; my stomach ached from laughter. Boy Swallows Universe is - I can't think of a word more apt - magical. This vibrant, vital, altogether miraculous coming-of-age novel marks the debut of an exquisitely gifted storyteller... and what's more, it's transformative: After reading Trent Dalton's book, you won't be the same as you were before. David Wenham
An astonishing achievement. Dalton is a breath of fresh air - raw, honest, funny, moving, he has created a novel of the most surprising and addictive nature. Unputdownable. Nikki Gemmell
Trent Dalton is the most extraordinary writer - a rare talent. A major new voice on the Australian literary scene has arrived.
Brisbane (pronounced "brizz-binh"), the capital city of Queensland, Australia, is the setting for Trent Dalton's debut novel Boy Swallows Universe. In an essay in the Weekend Australian Magazine, Dalton describes his hometown with his trademark literary flair: "Brisbane is a bat-sucked mango wedged in your mower blades...Brisbane is all five senses working toward a sixth. It smells like mangroves and boiled mud crab and tubs of pineapple pieces on cannery conveyor belts."
That said, Brisbane offers much for the modern tourist to experience, and also has a distinctive history. The city began as a penal settlement in 1824, built by British colonists on indigenous lands. After World War II, waves of immigrants arrived from Europe and ...
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