Datsun Angel

'This is a tale that never takes its foot off the accelerator . . . Part journey into the dark heart of Australia, part love story, this electric, defiant, darkly funny memoir is fuelled by the outsized passions of youth and tempered by the retrospective wisdom of age.' Sydney Morning Herald

'Hilarious, terrifying and fun - much like the 80s, only smarter.' ANNA FUNDER

'Fiercely funny. This is a road trip of danger, love and hope. Brilliant!' JULIA ZEMIRO

'Witty, brave, honest and wise. Mad Max meets 1980s feminism, fuelled by undergraduate outrage and hedonism.' CATHERINE LUMBY

'A fascinating insight into the 1980s, as well as contemporary Australia.' Canberra Weekly

Datsun Angel is a turbo-charged adventure into the savage heart of 1980s Australia: a place completely alien, yet frighteningly similar, to today.

EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK HAPPENED . . .

At seventeen, Anna Broinowski is precocious, naive and convinced she knows how the world works. But O-Week at Sydney University changes that. She's suddenly in a hyper-masculine caste system, where future captains of industry terrorise freshers and invade dorms in naked, screaming packs.

Nothing is what she thought it'd be . . . until Anna finds her people. New dreams are made. Playing violin, auditioning for NIDA, losing her virginity. Then Peisley, a gentle giant, talks of a hitchhiking trip up north. And, after agreeing on three rules - never split up, remain platonic, accept every lift that gets them closer to Darwin - Anna decides to go.

Hitchhiking the highways leads her into a dystopian dustbowl on society's hard edges, where outsiders must adapt or perish, and women teeter on an existential knife edge. In this flyblown asylum, love and danger collide with the toxic misogyny in the guts of the Australian soul. Anna will learn that the line between victim and survivor can be as cruel as luck and as random as a shiny blue Datson on a red dirt road.

Based on her battered travel diary, Datsun Angel is a savage, darkly funny memoir of sex, drugs and violence-fuelled adventure through the brutal 1980s Australian outback. It is a feminist On the Road, told through a #MeToo filter.

'Broinowski's work is compelling . . . The ways in which she introduces us to the people in her story give us incredible insight into how each of them affected her.' Saturday Paper

Anna Broinowski is a filmmaker and writer who documents counter-cultural subjects. Her globally screened films include Hell Bento!! (about Japanese subcultures), Forbidden Lie$ (about hoax-author Norma Khouri), Helen's War (about anti-nuclear crusader Dr Helen Caldicott) and Aim High In Creation! (about North Korean cinema). They've won a Walkley and other gongs but Anna's favourite is the Moscow Film Critic's prize which is a carved elephant. A senior lecturer at Sydney University, Anna researches propaganda and deepfakes. Her previous books are Please Explain: the rise, fall and rise again of Pauline Hanson and The Director is the Commander (reprinted in the US as Aim High in Creation!).

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.