A white man who has lived with a tribe of aboriginals since childhood stumbles back into the white man's world, where he finds love and loyalty but also fear and petty loathing. 'Remembering Babylon' is not so much about the re-integration of Gemmy into society as a character study of the society which may or may not accept him – which culture is the more savage? I was surprised by the power behind this carefully exposed story. There are moments of pure, undistilled beauty in the prose, but the biggest strength for me was the vivid evocation of place (Gemmy's British childhood as well as the searing Australian landscape) and more importantly the people within those places. A motley assortment of caricatures grow into living, breathing, flawed human beings as their stories are slowly revealed. The prose is understated allowing the characters to speak for themselves, yet leaving a tremendous sense of everything that is left unsaid. This is a comparatively little known gem of a modern novel (first published 1993) that has all the hallmarks of a future classic. I can't recommend it highly enough!