Flames by Robbie Arnott: book review

Flames (2018) is set on a coastal farm near Launceston, Tasmania, in Australia in contemporary times. It is about a young man, Levi McAllister, his family, and his neighbourhood.

After the loss of their mother, his 23-year-old sister Charlotte is not coping, and Levi wants to help. But she leaves the farm, heading south by bus, and goes missing. Not happy with the work of the senior detective, Levi hires a private detective—a young woman—to help find Charlotte.

Their father Jack, living on a nearby farm, hasn’t been seen either since Charlotte’s disappearance. Fisherman Karl partners with a fur seal to catch tuna; his 18-year-old logical daughter Nicola, who is Charlotte’s friend, is studying at veterinary school; a native water-rat—a rakali—is seen upriver; Allen has dead wombats on his property; and a father takes form from fire.

This is magical realism and mythology, told in a poignant, fascinating, strange way. As it brings humans to death, it brings nature to life.

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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