How do we feel about Jonah? Published when my great-grandparents were children, I find myself very compelled by this peek into the lives of the rough working class of Sydney at the turn of the century. Jonah is a lowlife, and his friends aren't much better. Women get knocked up, mothers hide money under the floorboards, and no-one is particularly keen on having a social conscience.

And yet, we quickly realise that's because they can't. I find this book fascinating because it tells the same narrative we hear now from the disenfranchised - often people of colour and the very poor - but one that is discussed with a more racist taint. Here, we have people in the same situation, who happen to be white. The characters are exquisite: Pinkey, the working-class woman who bursts off the page with her constant balancing act of holding on to something of her own personality while being used by others. The wily widow Mrs Yabsley, one story among many of how women had to find ways to survive. And Jonah himself, a fully dimensional portrait of a man who doesn't know any other way of living, yet seems to wonder if he could have something more, but constantly turns away from it due to the pressures of society and of everyday existence. Even the scenes of quotidian life, drinking or shopping at the market, are unintended historical documents. Yes, please. ( )