6 Degrees of Separation: From Dangerous Liaisons to My Place

Melinda Tognini February 1, 2025 No Comments

Welcome back to 6 Degrees of Separation, where book lovers all start with the same book, then link it to six other titles in any way that our brains form connections.

This month’s starting book, thanks to Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest, is Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

Although most of us know it as the 1988 film starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfieffer, the novel was originally published in 1782, a few years before the French Revolution. There has been two more recent adaptions, both as television series; one is a remake of the original, and the second has been re-imagined as a coming-of-age high school drama.

An Australian novel that has been adapted much more recently for the screen is Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard, about four boys coming to terms with their sexuality while growing up in Geraldton, a small town on the north-west coast of Western Australia. The series drops on Stan on 13 February, and the trailer looks amazing.

A series I think lends itself to a film or television adaptation is Michael Trant’s Gabe Ahern series, which currently consists of Wild Dogs, No Trace and now Blood and Gold. This latest book is set in Cue, Western Australia, where an amateur gold prospector goes missing.

My grandmother and great-grandmother grew up on the Western Australian goldfields, albeit in Kanowna and Kalgoorlie, about a seven-hour drive from Cue, and about a hundred years before Gabe Ahern turns up. (Keep an eye out for an author interview with Michael Trant and book discussion notes on my website in the coming weeks).

Katharine Susannah Prichard, however, set her goldfields trilogy around the time my ancestors were making their home there. The series included Roaring Nineties as well as Golden Miles and Winged Seeds.

Through Silent Country by Carolyn Wadley Dowley is set in the same area, beginning with the author’s own story and journey into the country around Laverton – Wongutha country – after discovering a reference to a story of forced removal, escape and resilience. There, she connected with members of the Wongutha community who not only confirmed details, but revealed how it was a part of the many stories which form their history.

In the 1990s, Wongutha author, May O’Brien wrote a series of stories for children, some of which were traditional stories of the Wongutha people, and some which were based on her early life on an Aboriginal mission. These stories have now been collated into a single slim volume, Wongutha Tales, and published posthumously in 2023.

There is a growing number of books in a variety of genres being written by First Nations people in Australia, portraying a diversity and complexity of experience (although there is still a ways to go with regard to inclusivity and diversity in the publishing industry). However, I will always remember My Place by Sally Morgan because it was the first book I ever read by an Indigenous author.

It could be said I didn’t travel far this month, with all 6 titles being set in Western Australia. On the other hand, WA covers 2.646 million squared kilometres so it’s still a fair distance!