Bitin' Back

Melissa Lucashenko, Vivienne Cleven

• Publisher: University of Queensland Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9780702269776
• Edition: 2

In a small town, one family's secret explodes with hilarious and heartfelt consequences. When Blackouts' star player Nevil Dooley wakes one morning to don a frock and 'eyeshada', his mother's idle days at the bingo hall are gone forever. Mystified and clueless, single parent Mavis takes to bush-cunning and fast footwork to unravel the mystery behind this sudden change of face.Funny and cleverly covert, too, this is a truthful rendering of small-town prejudice and racist attitudes. Hilarity prevails while desperation builds in the race to save Nevil from the savage consequences of his discovery in a town where a career in footy is a young black man's only escape. Neither pig shoots, bust-ups at the Two Dogs, bare-knuckle sessions in the shed nor even a police siege can slow the countdown on this human timebomb.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author Biography
• Title Page
• Imprint Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction by Melissa Lucashenko
• Epigraph
• Chapter 1: Jean Arrives
• Chapter 2: Missin
• Chapter 3: Bitin
• Chapter 4: Sandalboy
• Chapter 5: Another Lie
• Chapter 6: She’s a Sore Loser
• Chapter 7: Make Him a Man
• Chapter 8: Rumblin On
• Chapter 9: He’s Comin Out
• Chapter 10: Bare Knucklin
• Chapter 11: The Dealer
• Chapter 12: Will It Ever End?
• Chapter 13: The Set-up
• Chapter 14: Isaac Edge
• Chapter 15: He’s Crossed That River
• Chapter 16: Hostage Taker
• Chapter 17: The Sun West of the Mountains
• Chapter 18: The Game