Two young Australians arrive unannounced on a remote Melanesian island and ask its residents if they can live with them for a year. Granted this request, cut off from the outside world, living without electricity, telephones, running water, two-way radios or even access to an ocean-going boat, Roger Averill and his anthropologist partner adapt to life in a subsistence culture and find themselves overwhelmed by the generosity of their hosts. Treacherous sea voyages, cyclones, a drug-induced psychotic episode and encounters with maverick American missionaries all add to the adventure. As the health of the couple steadily deteriorates from repeated bouts of malaria, their relationships with the islanders intensify to form deep and lasting bonds. In this way, amidst stories of love and detective magic, shape-changing witches, playful tree sprites, dwarf’s hair and a dead merman, the most amazing transformation in Boy He Cry remains the way these people from vastly different cultures start out as total strangers but quickly become friends, even family.
Rare, precious and beautiful, Boy He Cry is a spiritual odyssey into the heart of a remote culture.
‘Roger Averill’s book will bring back memories, often amusing ones, for anyone who has had the experience of being suddenly transplanted into the established life of a very alien society. Differences of ‘custom’, and struggles with language, frequently lead to comedy, which in turn can lead to affection.’ Randolph Stow, author of The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea and To the Islands.
Despre autor
Roger Averill lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he works as a freelance researcher, editor and writer. Over the past decade he has been involved in the production of numerous publications. His forthcoming novel, Keeping Faith, was well received in the Vogel Literary Award. In the late 1990s Roger wrote a doctoral thesis about sociological readings of biographies and has since published articles in a number of international journals. Stemming from this work, he has an agreement with the eminent Australian author Randolph Stow to one day write his authorised biography. Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey is his first full length work of non-fiction.
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