Iris Renshaw and her twin brother, Floyd, are cold, hungry and short of money as they enter a mythical landscape being terrorised by Dusk, a South American puma. Descriptions of the location are vague enough to be anywhere – until the presence of kangaroos places it in Australia. The landscape is a moody, predatory place dotted with the bones of ancient beasts. It’s a fearsome place, even without the big cat, but Dusk elevates its perils. She’s killed people and now has a bounty on her head. The brother and sister are desperate enough to chase the money. At an inn in the high country, Iris meets Patrick Lees. Floyd doesn’t trust him, but Iris is charmed by his company. Stories of Dusk’s exploits are told in the inn and men gather together a hunting party to capture and kill her.

Woven into the narrative is the Renshaw family’s history. The parents were recidivist criminals, mostly living on stolen goods, but also committing murder when cornered. Iris and Floyd were co-opted as helpers in the robberies but have pledged to forge an honest path as adults. Their reputations precede them, however. The local squattocracy offers them a cold welcome. Iris finds piecemeal work with Lydia, an Indigenous woman, and hears of a South American man tracking Dusk. She and Lees follow this ‘Patagonian’, but there are many twists to come in the narrative.

Floyd’s back pain almost renders him useless, as does Iris’s infatuation with Lees. When they finally meet the Patagonian, Jon, he reveals his own – very different – agenda, and the ending is marvellously ambiguous. Arnott’s writing – already strong – is better than ever.

Reviewed by Bob Moore

Read a book review of Limberlost.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robbie Arnott’s acclaimed debut, Flames (2018), won a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist award and a Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, a New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award, a Queensland Literary Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the Not the Booker Prize. His follow-up, The Rain Heron (2020), won the Age Book of the Year award, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the ALS Gold Medal, the Voss Literary Prize and an Adelaide Festival Award. He lives in Hobart.

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