Ash
Road was published in 1965. The first
few pages show its age with dated language and an old fashioned style of
writing, but don’t let that put you off reading this classic book. Except for the lack of technology and kids
being left largely to their own devices, the rest of the story could have been
written this decade.
From
the moment a trio of school boys accidentally start a bush fire, you know the unstoppable
monster is heading straight for Ash Road.
The folk living on Ash Road have various levels of knowledge of the impending
disaster and how to survive it, but don’t realise the enormity of the danger
they’re in. After all there’s a whole mountain
and huge reservoir between them and the fire.
For
anyone familiar with the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, the fictitious
terrain around Ash Road is recognisable, but even for those of you who aren’t, Ash
Road will have you on the edge of your seat.
Nature itself is both villain and hero in this book but the human
characters’ efforts to save themselves and each other are precious, and the
trial by fire changes each character indelibly.
The ending is a relief and the last line incredibly moving.
Ivan
Southall’s descriptions of the fire are outstanding – classic Aussie children’s
literature at its best:
It came upon his vision as something
living and evil, shapeless and formless, constantly changing, huge beyond
comprehension: an insane creature of immense greed consuming everything around
it whether the taste pleased or revolted it, rejecting what it did not care for
only after it had mauled and savaged it, then pitching it aside or spitting it
into the heavens.
– Ivan Southall, Ash Road
