An Australian reader put me on to this author.

For me this novel combined good storytelling and a marvellous evocation of western Australia, both of small townships and the 'heat and dust' of the interior. He writes in a spare fashion, not seeming to strive for effects in an over-literary way. I cared what happened to the two main protagonists - a 40ish woman rather adrift in a relationship with a divorced, wealthy trawlerman and an outsider type who poaches fish for a living. This precis makes things seem simpler and more prosaic than they really are. The second half of the novel reminds one of American on-the-road type of writing. It's a good read.