by Jock Serong
The software has taken over now. Stella’s relief that her ordeal is over has been replaced by a mounting realisation that it is expanding infinitely.
The screen is filling and shuffling vertically now, as it adds dozens of names to a list it is building. In parallel planes the names scroll upwards, but the heading at the top of the page never moves.
All of Press Gallery.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
After I’d finished a first draft of this story, Text’s Michelle Calligaro suggested I read Between Sky and Sea, the 1946 debut of Herz Bergner. When I reached the unforgettable end of that novel I wondered how mine could have followed such a similar arc. The answer, I feel, lies in the sad circularity of our political responses to refugees. We may have escalated the stakes over seven decades, but our indifference is nothing new.
There are many people to thank for their valuable contributions to this book. On Indonesia, and the operation of a surf charter boat, I’m indebted to Chris ‘Scuzz’ Scurrah of Sumatran Surfariis—he was very relaxed about my persistent interest in sabotage. On the medicine, thank you to Jennifer McCarthy and Ian Sutherland, Paul Goggin, Cathreena Jervis and especially Jamie Hurley for his unique insights as a surfing surgeon. Simon Troeth and former senator Judith Troeth AM helped to teach me about Canberra and the inner workings of Parliament House. And on Afghan society and culture, my thanks to Heather-Grace Jones. In respect of each of these generous people, the errors that remain are mine and not theirs.
My background reading included (in no particular order) Robin de Crespigny’s The People Smuggler, Åsne Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul, David Marr and Marian Wilkinson’s Dark Victory, the Husain Haddawy translation of The Arabian Nights, the Coleman Barks translation of The Essential Rumi, Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories and Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman’s The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif.
I’m grateful to have the support and guidance of the talented team at Text Publishing, and most especially Mandy Brett.
For their careful and constructive readings of the manuscript I wish to thank Robert Gott, Chris McDonald, Dom Serong, Jo Canham and Ed Prendergast. And for their love and endless patience, my wife Lilly and our children Raphaela, Carmelita, Humboldt and Ondine.
Macadamia is a fictionalisation of a real chook called Coconut McCann. We never met, but I’m told she was a good bird.
Jock Serong is the author of Quota, winner of the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and The Rules of Backyard Cricket, shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2017.
@JockSerong
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Copyright © Jock Serong 2017
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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
First published in 2017 by The Text Publishing Company
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Cover design by W.H. Chong
Cover photos by iStock
Page design by Jessica Horrocks
Map by Simon Barnard
Typeset in Minister Light 10/16.5 by J&M Typesetting
Creator: Serong, Jock, author.
Title: On the java ridge / by Jock Serong.
Subjects: Australia, fiction. Australia, politics.
ISBN: 9781925498394 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925410662 (ebook)
