AustLit

'So much has been written about Bob Hawke – Labor’s longest-serving prime minister, women fawning in his presence, blokes awed by his sporting and drinking prowess – you might wonder what more there is to know about him.' (Introduction)

'How does a young doctor, driven out of Iraq by political violence that engulfs the very hospital he is working in, end up in the isolation unit of an Australian maximum security prison? He has committed no crime, under local or international law. Then one day in 2000, after 10 months in Australia’s immigration detention system – 10 months wasted, for himself and the country he will embrace – he is left on the side of a desert highway in Western Australia to wait for a bus.' (Introduction)