Up From The Bottom
A Novel
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Dawn Masked in crepuscular grey, the long flat riverboat glides almost silently towards the bay, the glass superstructure catching momentary flashes of shore-lights reflected up from the ripples of the dark water. Then the engine cuts out, the bow slowly turns, dips slightly and edges in towards the left bank, as she slides under the vast shadow of the Westgate Bridge. When she explodes, the flames seem to climb the massive towering concrete bridge-base at the water's edge, the low hull looking for a moment like a giant crucible in some pagan river offering. A second explosion rips the hull apart and flames flicker up from the water as they feed on the oil slick. Within minutes, the fire dies and the wreckage bobs and hisses slowly on the ebbing tide, drifting downstream out from the bridge-shadow into the ghostly pink hints of first light. The charred body lies face down, rocking gently, with several waterlogged blue and yellow bank notes floating around it like funeral flowers. By the time the water police approach the scene, the detritus has almost reached the bay.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
No one would ever regard the insignificant muddy watercourse that wanders through the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, as iconic, or mystical. There is nothing of the Ganges, or the Thames or the Mississippi about the Yarra. Most people barely notice it's there and those who do tend to disparage its effluence. Yet, for the two men who have spent most of their lives keeping the Yarra channels flowing, there is a kind of divine power there. From a family tradition of riverboat men, identical twins, Jay and Vic Walker, see their almost religious respect for the river confirmed, when their dredge brings up a small fortune, the river's gift. The gift however is conditional, it comes with responsibility, one that consumes them and changes their otherwise humdrum simple lives indelibly.
Birthdays mark the significant steps in the Walkers' story, and on his 50th birthday, looking back, Jay attempts to make sense of his journey. From the temporary sanctuary of his hospital room, gently impelled forward by his psychiatrist, he records the events as a birthday present for the eight year old boy in his family. Steadily unravelling the Walker history into a tape recorder, he narrates their trajectory, from the dredge's revelation, purchasing their identical Honda Gold Wings and then encountering the homeless Mo Heany on her beaten-up Yamaha. When they invite her to become their housekeeper, their lifestyle changes irrevocably. At the same time, their dredging days give way to a very different kind of craft, all fuelled by the secret stash under the barbecue in their backyard. However, as Jay comes to understand ever more deeply, the river has its price and ultimately the price must be paid. What is dredged up must be accounted for.
Who is responsible for the mysterious and deadly explosion on the tourist boat? Who in fact is the real father of the child? The tape recording narrator's portrayal of his own world may be rather different from how the world really is.
About the Author
Although Alastair Sharp is an Australian writer living in France, his writing world is essentially rooted in the country of his birth. When he is not resident in Bordeaux, he retreats to his hilltop village of Laparade in the Lot et Garonne, to immerse himself in an entirely different universe.