Riverslake

Bob Randolph, a veteran of World War Two, finds a job working in the kitchen of Riverslake, a workers hostel just outside Canberra. He witnesses 'New Australians' being subjected to racism and discrimination – while he's subjected to the attentions of a married woman. 'This is a fierce book, swept by sudden gusts of savage anger against things that are happening and chances that are being wasted in Australia today. It gets to the very heart of the migrant assimilation problem.' — News (Adelaide), 1953'T.A.G. Hungerford has written a first-class Australian novel, a novel which should bring him recognition far beyond the English-speaking world.' — Emery Barcs, The Daily Telegraph, 1953First published in 1953, Riverslake is one of the earliest novels to be set in Canberra and remains one of the few to be set in the nation's capital; its subject – immigration and assimilation – remains as current as it ever was. It was...