Word of mouth acclaims the lyricism of Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott’s fiction, especially in relation to the natural world. Dusk is my entry point into his oeuvre and I admit I’m smitten. The storyline seems deceptively simplistic: knockabout twins hear about a bounty on a fearsome, rogue puma, and they ride into the mysterious highlands in pursuit of a chance of money. What they encounter, when shaped by a superb novelist like Arnott, is both stunning natural beauty and wildness, and the best and worst of humanity. The author’s luminescent, rhythmic prose (redolent in parts of Cormac McCarthy without his clipped phrasing) lights up every page, and his heartfelt dissection of the characters of the twins, plus a surefooted, twisty plot, drive the reader through a read that only occasionally founders on excessive explanatory rumination. The climax is brilliant, just brilliant. Dusk represents wilderness-centered storytelling at its best.
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