Yilkari (Nicolas Rothwell & Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson, Text)

Yilkari is a book that resists easy categorisation – it’s part character study, part travel narrative, part history lesson and part meditation on the connection between people and place. This genre-defying quality is fitting, given the book explores people’s unique experiences with the Australian desert landscape. Written by Nicolas Rothwell (Quicksilver) and artist Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson, a Luritja-Pintupi woman from the Western Desert community of Papunya, Yilkari is a collection of four short, dialogue-driven vignettes. Each features the same first-person narrator embarking on a journey into the desert, though his purpose, companion and role differ. For some, he is a guide. For others, a confessor. And sometimes, he’s just a fellow traveller. The characters he meets include a Russian pianist, shaped by the fall of the Berlin Wall and in search of his lost muse, and a photographer hoping to exorcise the ghosts of his past with a perfect shot. They are set alongside people whose connection to the land spans tens of thousands of years, offering a simple but profound truth: the desert is not empty – many just don’t know how to look at it, or at themselves. This is a book that invites reflection and makes you wonder: What would you find in the desert? And under its watchful eye, what would you find in yourself? It’s a compelling read for anyone interested in literature that explores identity and spirituality, and is likely to appeal to readers who enjoy the works of Paulo Coelho or Haruki Murakami.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Stefen Brazulaitis has been a bookseller with a special interest in science fiction and fantasy for 30 years and is the owner of Stefen's Books in Perth WA. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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