King of Dirt (Holden Sheppard, Pantera)

Holden Sheppard hits again with the blunt edge of Australian queerness in his latest novel, King of Dirt. Continuing his work in the gay coming-of-age genre (Sheppard’s 2019 debut Invisible Boys won the TAG Hungerford Award for an unpublished manuscript and was recently adapted into a Stan original series), the author writes with signature realism about sexuality and relationships between men in small-town settings. King of Dirt follows Giacomo ‘Jack’ Brolo, a closeted tradie and self-described ‘boof-head’, as he travels to his hometown of Geraldton after an absence of 16 years. Set to reunite with his estranged family, Jack also seeks to reconnect with his childhood friend and first love, Xavier. This is not a new narrative in Australian fiction – a gay male protagonist tormented by a culture of hyper-masculinity attempts to reconcile with the homophobic attitudes of his immigrant family while engaging in a series of casual hook-ups in an effort for self-discovery – but there is something refreshing about Sheppard’s ability to take this narrative to a place of genuine intimacy and resolution. For this reviewer, King of Dirt is most successful in its quiet and tender moments; Sheppard’s characters are shown to be capable of true connection, and although they deal with conflict and discrimination, their storylines are neither hopeless nor simplistic. King of Dirt is recommended to readers who enjoy Christos Tsiolkas and Peter Polites.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Abe Theobald is a writer and graduate researcher at La Trobe University. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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