The Campers by Maryrose Cuskelly

Non-fiction author Maryrose Cuskelly delivered her debut novel, The Cane in 2022. That book, a historical crime fiction novel, felt like it leant on her true crime writing and was as much about the community and the time and place as the crime. Her new novel, The Campers, is more of an exploration of modern Australian society than a crime novel per se. There is a little bit of crime, and some general mayhem and The Campers uses this to explore current fault lines in Australian society and culture.

Leah lives with her older husband Moses and their two young children in a hidden away dead-end street which locals call ‘The Drove’. The street is a tightknit community that in itself seems to represent a cross section of Australian society, including the gay couple next door, the Indian family, the old women who raise chickens and a house inhabited by three younger renters. The world of the Drove is sent for a spin when an encampment of homeless people springs up on the reserve at the end of the street that the ‘drovers’ consider to be theirs. The residents are torn between their feelings of entitlement and their social consciences as small events start to make them resent the campers. Leah, unhappy with her life, finds herself drawn to the campers’ charismatic leader Sholto.

Cuskelly is interested in these two communities, how they make tentative attempts to understand each other, how existing prejudices and preconceived notions on both sides taint those attempts, and the limits of bureaucratic or legal interventions to reconcile the two. And then, how the situation can slide out of control particularly when it is being driven by people with particular agendas on either side. The aspect that holds the narrative together is the character of Leah – believably flawed and torn between siding with her neighbours and trying to show some compassion.

The Campers is an excoriating look at the relationship between the privileged haves and the increasing number of have-nots in Australia. It is a cautionary tale as it reflects a situation in which more and more places in Australia become out of reach for home ownership or even rental for many. But as a result it also feels a little didactic at times – an exploration of two sides of a current debate using a worked example. Very few of the characters on either side come out of the conflict in a good light, and these are mostly the younger people. The Campers tries to present modern Australia in microcosm and in doing so delivers a cautionary tale with maybe some room for hope for the next generation.

The Campers by Maryrose Cuskelly

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7.0/10