THE ROVING PARTY

Winner, 2011 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award. A surprisingly beautiful evocation of horror and brutality, The Roving Party is a meditation on the intricacies of human nature at its most raw. With echoes of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, this striking debut has been described as 'an evocative and impressive first novel' by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Set in 1829, a band of frontier misfits sets out on a quest led by the ruthless, singleminded John Batman, to acquire land to produce food for the growing colony. The band comprises four convicts, the youngest still only a stripling; Gould, a downtrodden farmhand; two free black trackers; and powerful, educated Black Bill, brought up from childhood as a white man. This is the roving party and their purpose is massacre. With promises of freedom, land grants and money, each is willing to risk his life for the prize. Passing over many miles of tortured country, the roving party searches for Aborigines, taking few prisoners and killing freely, Batman never abandoning the visceral intensity of his hunt. And all the while, Black Bill pursues his personal quarry, the much-feared warrior Manalargena. Rohan Wilson lived a long, mostly lonely, life until a lucky turn of events led him to take up a teaching position in Japan where he met his wife. They have a son who loves books, as all children should. They live in Launceston in Northern Tasmania. Rohan holds degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne.