Bitin' Back: First Nations Classics by Melissa Lucashenko, Vivienne Cleven

Now included in UQP's First Nations Classics series with an introduction by Melissa Lucashenko, Bitin' Back is a rollicking comic novel that nimbly blends the realities of small town prejudice and racial intolerance.

When the Blackouts' star player Nevil Dooley wakes one morning to don a frock and 'eyeshada', his mother's idle days at the bingo hall are gone forever. Mystified and clueless, single parent Mavis takes to bush-cunning and fast footwork to unravel the mystery behind this sudden change of face.

Funny and cleverly covert, too, this is a truthful rendering of small-town prejudice and racist attitudes. Hilarity prevails while desperation builds in the race to save Nevil from the savage consequences of his discovery in a town where a career in footy is a young black man's only escape. Neither pig shoots, bust-ups at the Two Dogs, bare-knuckle sessions in the shed nor even a police siege can slow the countdown on this human timebomb.