Boy Swallows Universe

Starred review from February 11, 2019
Dalton’s splashy, stellar debut makes the typical coming-of-age novel look bland by comparison. The novel tracks bright, confused young narrator Eli as he moves through the ages of 12 to 19 in the 1980s in a seedy suburb of Brisbane. Eli’s best friends are his older brother, August, an electively mute genius with premonitions of the future, and former felon Slim, his babysitter and a notorious, frequent escapee from a heavily guarded prison. Eli loves his parents, but they’re a mess: his mom and step-dad deal heroin, and his dad is a depressed, panic-stricken alcoholic. The novel follows Eli as he nearly gets caught up in dealing drugs himself, discovers a secret room with a mysterious red telephone in his house, breaks into prison to wish his incarcerated mom a merry Christmas, and avenges the wrongs done to his family—all while pursuing his dream of becoming a journalist. In less adept hands, these antics might descend into whimsy, but Dalton’s broadly observant eye, ability to temper pathos with humor, and thorough understanding of the mechanics of plot prevent the novel from breaking into sparkling pieces. The author shapes Eli into an appealingly credible hero capable of shaping a future for himself despite a background that doesn’t bode well for him. This is an outstanding debut.

April 27, 2018
The debut novel from award-winning journalist Trent Dalton is a harrowing coming-of-age tale set against the street-level drug trade in 1980s Brisbane. Boy Swallows Universe follows Eli Bell from ages 13 to 18 as his life is repeatedly turned upside down. Losing loved ones to violent crime and the justice system, he finds a sole constant in his mute older brother August, who communicates via cryptic handwriting in the air. For all of the book’s outsized quirks—such as an octogenarian drug lord and an infamous ex-con turned babysitter—it’s actually semi-autobiographical, with Eli drawn to a career in journalism at the Courier Mail, where Dalton himself was formerly an assistant editor. Dalton depicts the drug trade as alternately savage and mundane, and the book balances rough-and-tumble Aussie humour with a stubborn sincerity. Fans of Chris Flynn’s The Glass Kingdom and Chris Womersley’s Cairo should sympathise with these young misfits dealing with the direct impact of crime. While some readers may be put off by the explicit descriptions of heroin addiction and grisly violence—including a startling scene of domestic abuse—Dalton’s narrative choices prove to be necessary to effectively tell this extreme fable about living with the effects of trauma. Doug Wallen is a freelance journalist, copywriter and editor