Babylon

In Stephen Sewell's apocalyptic thriller, Mick, an English backpacker, is heading North for the sun, the sex and the chance of making his fortune on the prawn trawlers plying the gulf. When he hitches a ride with the enigmatic Dan, a man with his hand on the wheel and his eye on the rear vision mirror, he isn't quite sure what he's letting himself in for, but he came to Australia looking for adventure.

Well, he wouldn't be standing on a back road with his thumb out if he didn't.

Only Dan is something else, from a place Mick never even dreamed of, and as the pair thread their way through the torn, broken landscape, in a spiral of escalating violence, he teaches Mick lessons he never wanted to learn, and shows him parts of himself he'd rather never seen.

"You know what your problem is," Dan said, "You think there's a difference between being alive and being dead."

"Isn't there?" asked Mick.

"If there is, which one are you now?" Dan answered.

About the Author

Stephen Sewell is the author of the novelisation of Animal Kingdom, the screenwriter of the multi-award winning film The Boys, and has won numerous awards for his plays including Three Furies. He was also the script editor on the film Chopper. Captive, the sequel to Babylon, will be published in 2012.