Phillip Gwynne can write. If Deadly, Unna and its Children's Book Council Award wasn't enough to prove it, Nukkin Ya, the sequel, certainly does. This novel is at once lyrical and colloquial; mature and fresh; funny and heart-rending. We meet Blacky again at age 15. Love and sex have filled his consciousness, and have become the subject of his wonderfully idiosyncratic narration. But small-town life and race relations still form the background to his existence, and all these aspects of his being become intertwined, as he falls for a Nunga girl. There is disapproval from many of the white inhabitants of the Port and many of the black inhabitants of the Point, and support and acceptance from some people too. Once again, Blacky struggles to find the `right' path to take (and it is not an obvious one). Without the benefit of fatherly advice, he must look deep within himself. There is too much to admire about this novel to enumerate all of its qualities here. Suffice to say that Gwynne's book will resonate with readers, even if, on the surface, they have nothing in common with the characters and their situations. Is it too much to hope that this is not the last we will read of Blacky?

Lorien Kaye is the editor of Australian Bookseller & Publisher and the Weekly Book Newsletter. 

C. 2000 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

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