Everything Is Water (Simon Cleary, UQP)

Like the river at its heart, Everything Is Water takes readers on a meandering journey full of unexpected delights, surprises and challenges at every turn. Novelist and hiker Simon Cleary (The War Artist) decides to become intimately acquainted with the Brisbane River he loves by embarking on the four-week, 344-kilometre journey alongside it, not against the flow but with it, from its unassuming source in the Great Dividing Range to the Port of Brisbane. As he walks—sometimes alone, sometimes joined by others with a connection to the river, or by friends and family—he considers the land around him and how it used to be before colonisation. A phrase from Jagera man James, who is among those who join the walk, reverberates in his mind: ‘This used to be kangaroo and emu country.’ But what signs of this remain? The closer he looks, the more stories there are to be found, hinted at by a stag’s skull hidden in the grass, the lone deer who grazes among a herd of cows, and the three cuts etched in a long-dead turtle’s underplating. Cleary’s narrative is lyrical and compelling, interspersed with musings on geological time, the nature of the river’s force and flow, other significant journeys, Australian history, and the people who inhabit the land. I enjoyed being transported by this book to the joyous simplicity of following a river and living curiously. Everything Is Water is for readers who loved The Salt Path by Raynor Winn and Underland by Robert Macfarlane.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Jemma Morrison is a bookseller with 15 years of experience in the book trade, including as a judge for the 2023 Ockham NZ Book Awards. She is currently studying publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews