Safe Return Doubtful

Australian fiction – published August 2026

Searching for inspiration for his final work, an unnamed poet and activist for the Tasmanian wilderness finds himself trapped down an abandoned mine in the island’s mountain rainforests.
Enveloped by darkness, claustrophobia begins to take hold, and he is visited by hallucinations and delirium, which bring back experiences and memories from his past.

At first these are personal experiences, linked to Tasmania’s past and its geography, about fishing, severe weather and mining. But his fever-like dream becomes dominated by two more significant events, the North Mount Lyell copper mining disaster of 1912 and the geologist and explorer Douglas Mawson’s legendary Antarctic expedition that was trapped by the ice.

It’s an ambitious novel by the amount of themes Ouston deals with. In addition, he does this in one long sentence, something I have always found difficult to read. My issue is primarily, when to break, or even to take a breath. I usually read a novel in a day, but in two or three sittings. One sentence books I find take more toll.

I think the point of this breathless work though, is to simulate to poet’s state, trapped in the mine, equally short of breath.

As much of an ordeal it is to read this, the reward is considerable; it is thrilling and breathtaking, as much as making its reader breathless..

My GoodReads score 4 / 5