The Cave (Victor Kelleher, Eagle Books)

In Victor Kelleher’s upper-middle-grade prehistoric adventure novel The Cave, young Irian—one of the few survivors after the Beast (a sabre-toothed tiger) attacks the cave where he lives—is traumatised into muteness and flees to the mountainside with injured fellow cave-dwelling clan member Ulana. They soon meet Trug, a stubborn, ornery wanderer who swears independence from any group but nonetheless takes the children under her wing, teaching survival skills—not least, how to create fire. Over a winter almost as hard as the flint shards Irian crafts into blades and arrowheads (embracing his newfound calling as a toolmaker like Trug), the three bond, and Ulana grows in confidence as a hunter. Irian, still haunted by memories of the Beast, longs for vengeance and reckoning, and so he and Ulana eventually return to the cave to face the past. Kelleher laces the fairly straightforward text with hints of more complex philosophical tension—Ulana’s utilitarian idealism favours sharing resources and knowledge, while Trug relies on more defensive trade tactics, with Irian suspended between them, fighting his own demons and slowly fostering a sense of purpose in the aftermath of losing his known world. Kelleher sets out to humanise the cave-dwelling people, whose language and inner worlds are not far from ours, emphasising their surroundings and discoveries. Readers of Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet may appreciate the elemental struggles, while others will enjoy the novelty of the setting.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor and writer, and a bookseller at the Hobart Bookshop. 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.

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