Desert Sorrow

Asylum seekers at Woomera

Tom Mann

PB 192 PP 210 x 150 ILLUS 1862546231 $24.95 Current Issues APN 9781862546233 Wakefield Press

‘This unassuming yet potent book is a must read, an eye witness testament to a phase in Australia’s history that has been deliberately hidden and is still destroying the lives of men, women and children.’ – Eva Sallis

The great achievement of this book is that the people are real, not figments of media construction, and we get to care about them, and worry for them. Australia has in recent years implemented harsh measures on refugees and asylum seekers, changing laws retrospectively and where necessary, to make anti-asylum seeker policy legal. These measures have been as popular as they have been misrepresented and misunderstood. This book gives an extraordinary and important insight into the secret daily life behind the wire of detention centres.

‘Desert Sorrow is a fascinating account of one man’s experience, providing a positive and enlightening contribution to a controversial chapter of Australian history. It forms an important bridge between asylum seekers and the Australian public, promotes discussion and challenges the reader to take an informed stance on the issue of mandatory detention. In an era when society seems increasingly indifferent to, even intolerant of, those different to us, it takes a courageous man to live by his convictions and write about it. – Nancy Huang, Educare News