From our Varuna Awards program comes a classic outlaw tale of a father and son on the run. ten-year-old Chook knows something is wrong when his father, Kev, bundles him into the car in the middle of the night, leaving their friend Max white-faced, silent and covered in blood.As the two head for Broken Hill and the hope of refuge with one of Kev's old girlfriends, the fierce bond between father and son is tested by Chook's memories of previous hasty exits, of happier times in Bowraville, a girl called Amber, and of a laughing young woman named Diane - the last of Kev's girlfriends and the closest thing to a mother Chook has known.At Broken Hill they are forced to take refuge in an old mosque, suspicious neighbours having prevented them from breaking into the absent ex-girlfriend's house. But when Kev returns after a disastrous night in the town and finds his son in the company of a young woman, Dr Khan, who has come to the mosque to pray, a bad situation gets a whole lot worse .the Last Ride is the fast-paced and profoundly moving story of a man who has lived defiantly outside the laws of society, the tough choices his son is forced to make, and the power and price of love.
