by Boomert - Spirit Wrestlers by Thomas Shapcott 11 Jan 2010

A small religious sect, the Doukhobors, journeys from Canada to a tiny country town in Queensland. A Doukhobor teenager, Ivan, forms a deep bond with a country boy, Johann. Their friendship develops and deepens until a tragic fire drives them apart emotionally and physically. Many years later the two men must face their demons and each other to resolve a past that haunts them. Spirit Wrestlers begins as a gripping story of two boys from the opposite ends of the world finding themselves and exploring their similarities. The sexual tension between them builds steadily with a growing sense of unease until some kind of natural disaster seems inevitable. The fire kills most of the Doukhobor community and, unfortunately, much of the tension that drives the story dies with them. The boys grow into men and their divergent paths lead them in different directions, one through Sydney’s underworld and the other into the Vietnam War. When they reconnect they have been changed by these experiences. The reader is distanced from the adult characters and it is with this sense of disconnectedness that the climactic moments are played out. Spirit Wrestlers is a strong, character-driven journey with a well-drawn landscape and a satisfying pace.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker