This item can be returned in its original condition within 30 days of receipt for change of mind. However, if your item is damaged or defective, you may be entitled to a remedy after 30 days. Contact the seller or visit Third-Party Seller Returns to learn more.

Read our returns policies

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (2) from $118.00 + $3.09 Delivery

Follow the author

Kim Scott

+ Follow

More books from this author

That Deadman Dance: A Novel Paperback – 30 August 2015

by Kim Scott (Author)

4.1 210 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$756.00","priceAmount":756.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"756","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"2A6ZOg7Mw%2FRy9KMdDfDFkBaVoODRquNZc2NYmz4udS6%2Fhza%2BVuvLAgTMJY2sbIQodZQKu7ponC1IL%2FdkU6tHqL%2FlBlqMyX%2FYS6waBl0CNDnBoMUgzXF7d3j%2BmhN55bW6gseKMzrfAQtr43ytdkPD05HdNtG%2FdyIAXq30i08GxRIgHNO7uV2MrDTk%2FcclPOCn","locale":"en-AU","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Report an issue with this product

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury Press
Publication date

30 August 2015
Dimensions

14.3 x 2.43 x 21.18 cm
ISBN-10

1608197794
ISBN-13

978-1608197798
See all details

Frequently bought together

$756.00

Get it 5 - 12 Jul

Usually dispatched within 2 to 3 weeks

Ships from and sold by University Bookstore Boston USA.

+

$19.25

In stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

+

Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

$11.85

In stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

Total Price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items dispatch sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Bartolome Las Casas
545
Paperback
in Latin American History Textbooks
21 offers from $21.81
Kim Scott
203
Paperback
3 offers from $14.63
Frantz Fanon
642
Paperback
22 offers from $22.99
Niall Ferguson
1,609
Paperback
6 offers from $11.85

Product description

About the Author

Kim Scott was born in 1957 to a white mother and Aboriginal father. His first novel, True Country, was published in 1993. His second, Benang: From the Heart, won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's most prestigious literary prize, in 2000, making Scott the first Aboriginal writer honoured. That Deadman Dance also won the Miles Franklin Award, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the South East Asia and Pacific Region. Scott has also published short stories and poetry. He lives in Western Australia with his wife and two children.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Press (30 August 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1608197794
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1608197798
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.3 x 2.43 x 21.18 cm

Customer Reviews:
4.1 210 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Kim Scott

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs, and more

Review this product

Write a customer review

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Elizabeth Green

That Deadman Dance

Reviewed in Australia on 17 July 2023

Verified Purchase

The imagery, authentic sense of the voices and sensitive portrayal of many points of view was fresh, poignant and thought provoking.

Helpful

MisterHobgoblin

Worthy but a bit too long

Reviewed in Australia on 11 December 2013

That Deadman Dance won the Australian Miles Franklin Prize 2011 - against expectations.

Kim Scott is a writer from Albany, Western Australia, with Aboriginal heritage. He can therefore claim some authenticity as he evokes the early years of Albany principally through the eyes of Bobby Wabalanginy, a young Aborigine of the Noongar people. Unlike some parts of the new territories, the early settlers to Albany - or King George Town as it was known - developed good relations with the indigenous people. Dr Cross, the first governor, was buried alongside Wunyeran, the Aboriginal leader. But as memory of Dr Cross faded, and as new settlers came, relations break down. This is brought to a head as the whales in the bay are overfished (if you can fish for whales) and food becomes scarce. This leads to a clash of cultures as concepts such as ownership and sharing mean different things to different people.

That Deadman Dance is hard to criticize. The subject matter is worthy and Kim Scott is a credible writer to take it on - even if he is inevitably looking back through the lens of the coloniser. But it does sometimes feel a little repetitive and a little overlong. One of the big problems is that the early settlement was little more than a few tents pitched between the trees and the sea. There are people and there is nature, but there isn't much stuff. There are some strong characters but little opportunity for them to interact in substantially new ways with one another. This can make things feel bleak; can make it feel as though the struggle for survival and struggle for supremacy is just a little pointless. The early settlers may have won riches for their ancestors, but they had little opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labours at the time. And after a couple of hundred pages, the reader feels that he or she has got the point. There is then a fair bit that feels like padding before the ending is played out over the last fifty or so pages.

The non-linear narration is also worth mentioning. This can make reading a slightly frustrating experience. In particular, characters tend to be mentioned when the action first warrants it - and then they will be introduced some pages later. The novel is chunked into four time periods and they are not presented sequentially which, given the already non-linear narrative - can be confusing. Perhaps this is to indicate an Aboriginal perspective (perhaps echoing Chinua Achebe's technique in Things Fall Apart), but perhaps it covers for the fact that not much is really happening. There are also multiple points of view at play, some from the settlers and some from the Noongar - although the Noongar perspective does tend to dominate.

That Deadman Dance is certainly worth reading; it is very poetic and evocative. It has something genuine to say. But one can't help but wish Kim Scott had used a hundred fewer pages to say it.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Great and difficult book

Reviewed in Australia on 8 April 2019

Verified Purchase

This was my second attempt at reading this book. I couldn’t finish it the first time. Not sure why as the subject matter is very interesting and the story is well written. It seems too long and confusing with a lot of jumping back and forth in time. There are some magnificent moments, especially towards the end of the book. Many questions raised about dispossession and the arrogance of the colonists, the resilience of the Noongars and the transformation of the landscape.

Reviewed in Australia on 8 April 2021

Verified Purchase

I found that the story needed a bit of concentration to keep track of the characters and events, It is a beautifully written story about the first contact between whites and the Noongar people. I finished reading the book as a much wiser and better informed resident of this area.

Reviewed in Australia on 18 May 2018

Verified Purchase

This novel gave me an insight into the history of settlement in Albany WA and the generosity of the first Australians which was sadly abused. The tragic betrayal their trust is heartbreaking.

Helpful

AdOnCar

Beautifully written - part poetry, part story

Reviewed in Australia on 17 July 2020

Verified Purchase

A most enjoyable and informative read.

Reviewed in Australia on 11 November 2020

Verified Purchase

I really wanted to read this but I couldn't stick to it. I think it offers good reading but it just didn't grab me.

Helpful

Jan Reid

A piece of Australian literature that has great historical value...

Reviewed in Australia on 4 October 2014

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott is the book that many readers (and Australians in particular) have been waiting for, perhaps without even realising it. Many authors have attempted to describe early settlement in Australia, but their efforts remain primarily from the European perspective. Scott, on the other hand, as the son of an Aboriginal father and English mother, was able to authentically deliver from both perspectives.

Kim Scott is no stranger to fame. He is the first indigenous Australian author to ever win the Miles Franklin Award; the most prestigious Australian literary award, and not only once, but - twice. Benang: From the Heart was the first of Scott's books to win the Miles Franklin Award along with the Western Australia Premier's Books Award, in 2000.

Commentary for That Deadman Dance, by the Judging Panel, 2011 Miles Franklin Award:-
'A powerful and innovative fiction that shifts our sense of what an historical novel can achieve. ... That Deadman Dance tells the story of the rapid destruction of Noongar people and their traditions. At the same time, there is the enchanting possibility of the birth of a new world in the strange song, dance, ceremony and language that are produced by these encounters of very different peoples'.

Along with the Miles Franklin Award 2011, That Deadman Dance was also awarded:-
* the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal
* the Regional Commonwealth Literary Prize for Best Book

It was also shortlisted for the following:-
* the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction
* the WA Premier's Book Award for Fiction
* and the Book Industry Award for Best Novel

While That Deadman Dance is a work of fiction, it was inspired by the authors (Noongar) ancestry and the history of the area in which he lives (Albany, Western Australia), which is also the setting of the book. Set in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, it is not only a story of early contact between indigenous Australians and European settlers, in that area of Western Australia, but it is a story told in the form of beautiful prose, through the character of a small Aboriginal boy, Bobby Wabalanginy.

The book is totally unique in its style and content. Bobby takes the reader on a journey of discovery into the way of life of the original inhabitants of Australia at the time of settlement; an edifying and thought provoking journey, which had history not dictated otherwise, could have given the reader even the smallest semblance of hope that the new arrivals would attempt to understand the way of Bobby's people; their respect for the land, and their willingness to share it.

My favourite parts:-

`Because you need to be inside the sound and the spirit of it, to live here properly. And
how can that be, without we people who have been here for all time?'

`We thought making friends was the best thing. We learned your words and songs and stories, [but] you didn't want to hear ours.'

Congratulations to Kim Scott for winning the 2011 Miles Franklin Award for That Deadman Dance, but more importantly I believe, for creating a piece of literature that not only has great historical value, but untold significance to all those seeking understanding and healing.

~ Jan Reid - J M Lennox

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Maria Rosa Garcia Sole

Un libro de un autor desconocido pero que debe conocerse

Reviewed in Spain on 2 June 2016

Verified Purchase

Me recomendó este libro un escritor inglés que vive en Australia. Imprescindible para conocer la historia de un continente que aunque esté en las antípodas forma parte de nuestro mundo.

Translate review to English

David Sharpe

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2015

Verified Purchase

Fine

KrankyKat

Fascinating history about colonial contact, slightly too long (4.5 stars)

Reviewed in Germany on 8 April 2015

Verified Purchase

This novel is mostly set at the sea shore of southern Australia and I have a feeling that the mode of narration reflects the movement of the waves hitting the shore. It moves between earlier years and later years of a European settlement, around 1830, 1840. In the early years, the settlers are still very dependent on the aboriginal people they encounter, in the later years the Europeans are more invested in controlling and imprisoning the native population.
The novel depicts friendship, learning, the hopes of young men, different characters, the dream of a peaceful encounter and finally its impossibility. It's mostly, but not exclusively, focused on a young Aboriginal man, Bobby Wabalanginy. He learns English quickly, enjoys the company of the English, helps them immensely and in return learns some skills from them.
The colonial encounter is depicted here in many facets, and there is no pornographic depiction of violence, the kind which we often see in the kind of novels that want to indict. That doesn't mean there's not indictment here - I personally am beginning to find this less sensationalist way of narrating conflict more convincing.

(The western lust to depict violence against the native other, even to indict - I'm beginning to grow critical of it, as I also pointed out in my review of Chimamanda Ngozi Aditichie's Half of a Yellow Sun

2 people found this helpful

Jan Reid

A piece of Australian literature that has great historical value...

Reviewed in the United States on 21 April 2012

Verified Purchase

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott is the book that many readers (and Australians in particular) have been waiting for, perhaps without even realising it. Many authors have attempted to describe early settlement in Australia, but their efforts remain primarily from the European perspective. Scott, on the other hand, as the son of an Aboriginal father and English mother, was able to authentically deliver from both perspectives.

Kim Scott is no stranger to fame. He is the first indigenous Australian author to ever win the Miles Franklin Award; the most prestigious Australian literary award, and not only once, but - twice. Benang: From the Heart was the first of Scott's books to win the Miles Franklin Award along with the Western Australia Premier's Books Award, in 2000.

Commentary for That Deadman Dance, by the Judging Panel, 2011 Miles Franklin Award:-
'A powerful and innovative fiction that shifts our sense of what an historical novel can achieve. ... That Deadman Dance tells the story of the rapid destruction of Noongar people and their traditions. At the same time, there is the enchanting possibility of the birth of a new world in the strange song, dance, ceremony and language that are produced by these encounters of very different peoples'.

Along with the Miles Franklin Award 2011, That Deadman Dance was also awarded:-
* the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal
* the Regional Commonwealth Literary Prize for Best Book

It was also shortlisted for the following:-
* the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction
* the WA Premier's Book Award for Fiction
* and the Book Industry Award for Best Novel

While That Deadman Dance is a work of fiction, it was inspired by the authors (Noongar) ancestry and the history of the area in which he lives (Albany, Western Australia), which is also the setting of the book. Set in the first two decades of the nineteenth century, it is not only a story of early contact between indigenous Australians and European settlers, in that area of Western Australia, but it is a story told in the form of beautiful prose, through the character of a small Aboriginal boy, Bobby Wabalanginy.

The book is totally unique in its style and content. Bobby takes the reader on a journey of discovery into the way of life of the original inhabitants of Australia at the time of settlement; an edifying and thought provoking journey, which had history not dictated otherwise, could have given the reader even the smallest semblance of hope that the new arrivals would attempt to understand the way of Bobby's people; their respect for the land, and their willingness to share it.

My favourite parts:-

`Because you need to be inside the sound and the spirit of it, to live here properly. And
how can that be, without we people who have been here for all time?'

`We thought making friends was the best thing. We learned your words and songs and stories, [but] you didn't want to hear ours.'

Congratulations to Kim Scott for winning the 2011 Miles Franklin Award for That Deadman Dance, but more importantly I believe, for creating a piece of literature that not only has great historical value, but untold significance to all those seeking understanding and healing.

~ Jan Reid - J M Lennox

8 people found this helpful

Fuchs Joan

Ratlos

Reviewed in Germany on 24 June 2017

Verified Purchase

Die guten Rezensionen hatten mich auf dieses Buch aufmerksam gemacht, aber ich frage mich doch, ob ich etwas anderes gelesen habe, als die anderen. Ich hatte damit echt Mühe und habe oft überlegt, es einfach wegzulegen. Ich verstehe den Wunsch nach nicht "pornographischer" Darstellung der Gewalt, das ist gut, lobenswert, aber manchmal war die Erzählung so vage, die Dialoge eigentlich nie direkt, die Sprache oft verwirrlich, kein Glossar bezüglich der Aboriginal Sprache, dass ich mich echt schwer damit getan habe. Vielleicht habe ich auch zu viel erwartet, aber es war echt nicht mein Ding. 2.5 Sterne.

Translate review to English

See more reviews

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

That Deadman Dance: A Novel Paperback – 30 August 2015

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

Related items viewed by customers

Product description

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Kim Scott

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries