Hiam

by Eva Sallis

The world had changed. As far as the eye could see, the earth was red. It wasn't orange, or soil red, or brown red, or perhaps all of them at once. It was profound rich red, glittering deeply in the mid-morning light. She was vaguely aware of having known that somewhere in Australia the land was this colour but the reality of it was startling and stunning.'

Hiam is the story of a journey through both a psychic and geographic landscape, a journey through disintegration and loss. Hiam, an Arab migrant woman, abandons Adelaide to unravel her life and memories on the road North after her family and identity have been destroyed. In the course of the novel she weaves an identity out of past, present, stories, dreams and the Australian landscape with which she engages for the first time.

On one level, this is the story of a migrant's experience in a strange land, a novel which explores the pressures, fragilities and strengths of exiled communities. It is also a story of universal human grief, individual courage and the will, not only to survive, but to live fully in the world.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Novels

139 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Also known as Eva Hornung: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a powerful road-trip story. A mad max style unrelenting trip from Adelaide due north to Darwin. A middle-eastern migrant woman can't stop or her grief will overtake her. Brilliantly done. I can see why it won Eva Sallis the vogel award and why she went on to do more.
It won't be the last of her's I read.

[Janettef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read. I found Hiam (the character) very intense and hard to sympathise with. It was only right at the end of the book that I could understand her a bit better. That gave the book a very interesting edge.

[Ellen Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent, evocative prose, gets inside the head of the woman who is going crazy with grief and follows her journey across Australia.

[Alessandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Troppo noiosoooo! Non ho intenzione di andare oltre le 17 pagine che ho letto!

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning!

[SteveMcI · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great descriptions of travelling Norh through central Oz. A Muslim wife going back over her relationships and life in Australia after the suicide of her husband.

[VinitaF · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral. Emotional. Full of a strong poetic voice that made this book a joy to read. Enjoyed the back and forth between the Australian desert landscape and the turmoil of the protagonist.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting story (though, not terribly uplifting by any means). The novel follows Hiam, an Arab immigrant, and her new life in Australia. As Hiam drives alone through Australia, the story is revealed through flashbacks. The observations on assimilate into a new culture and the inherent tensions this creates were the most meaningful to me. I also enjoyed the vignette about the evil Jinn.
I didn't particularly care for the writing itself, however. I thought it suffered from too many adjectives. The first sentence reads:
"As she headed beyond the confines of the known outer suburbs and beyond Mallala, the home of the furthest visited relative, she was ejected from her familiar Australia into a vast, monochromatic land, stitched up with patchy fences, overlaid with weedy paddocks, stubbly paddocks, golds, browns, and more subtle browns."
Every noun has an adjective. Maybe it's just my taste in writing, but it seemed like too much to me. I did like the non-linear story telling, though.

[MelM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Like the way the story was woven together - only revealing the events that had transpired towards the end of the book. Looks of description of south australian outback which I recognised from my travels there.