Robert Newton (1)

Moral of the story: crime pays

Moral of the story: crime pays

I keep thinking I have read this before....or a similar story. Girl with drug addicted mother living in housing commission flats befriends an elderly Russian man called The Creeper when she glances up and sees him about to throw himself off the roof. Together with her friends, who is a boy, they help him tidy his flat and build a garden on the roof. Then they set off in his very old but still working car to drive to Surfers Paradise - finding all sorts of things about each other on the way.

A lovely story of two brothers escaping a violent father in search of their mother thought to be 200 kms away in Port Maquarie. Along the journey they meet with a range of people who help or hinder them but Dan the narrator grows in to be able to manage the most difficult situations. The story is set against the backdrop of early 1900s rural NSW mustering for war far away in Europe.