Book reviews The midnight dress is a coming-of-age novel, the story of an unlikely friendship, a love letter to the landscape of far north Queensland, a mystery both woven and unravelling at once and ultimately, and — most importantly — a jolly good read. Helga Erichsen doi 10.1017/qre.2013.26 Kristina Olsson, Boy, lost, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2013, ISBN 9 780 7022 4953 2, 258 pp., RRP A$29.95. The importance of this novel is demonstrated by its timely launch, just a week after Julia Gillard issued a national apology for Australia’s forced adoption pol- icy — a policy that was in place in Queensland until the 1980s. While this is the story of a child abducted by his father, rather than a child adopted, Kristina Olsson’s novel shows how a culture of separating mothers and their children lies at the centre of this very personal family memoir. This book is an act of speak- ing out about something that has remained an uncomfortable subject among the wider population: in Olsson’s words, ‘the wholesale abduction of children over centuries’. Olsson’s lyrical prose and sensual descriptions capture the absurdity of life in post-war Queensland. At once idyllic and full of opportunities, North Queensland is also a place where Yvonne is beaten and starved by her husband — acts that are ultimately disregarded by authorities and the wider community. The split-narrative style means that both Yvonne’s and Peter’s stories are included, giving greater insight into the effect of the separation on the entire family. An afterword self- reflexively ties Olsson herself back into the story as writer, sister and daughter, reiterating the novel’s focus on personal effects. Although the book is beautifully written, I sometimes felt detached from the individuals or situations being described, and would have liked a few more subtle clues about the characters’ emotions. There were also a few awkward phrases that could have done with another edit. In a sentence I found particularly jarring, we are told that Peter stays ‘in a series of hospital wards that smell of confusion and pain’. However, these are minor criticisms. The most important moments in the book are conveyed with careful precision, clear and unsentimental prose, and emotional impact — the moment when Peter is taken, the first time he runs away from his father and the moment he sees Yvonne after nearly forty years: They watch this woman — she seems the right age, that’s all they can tell — and for some reason they stop talking. As if words, sounds, might impede their vision, one sense diminishing the other. It seems important to be quiet. So they’re silent, their faces turned to the gate near the roses. The roses, the roses. Oh my god, Peter breathes. That’s my mother. (p. 209) It is clear that Olsson is an experienced and talented writer, who has crafted this story with great care. This book should appeal to people for many reasons. Not only is it well written but it tells an important story — one that should resonate Queensland Review 235