Alice Springs

A young woman drives into the central Australian desert in pursuit of a memory, an unexplained secret from her childhood. What she finds there will change her life forever.

Phillipa "Snip" Freeman has trouble putting down roots. She is an artist and a wanderer, tough and in control of her world. That is until an envelope arrives, mailed by her grandmother before her death. In it, a check for $30,000 and one simple instruction: hunt him down. With the money Snip buys a utility vehicle, takes on a traveling companion, and sets off to find her father somewhere in the vast outback. Along the way we are introduced to the real Snip Freeman--a child once witness to her parents' violent breakup; a girl who learned never to trust men so she used them instead; and a woman who finds that this time there is nowhere to run.

Alice Springs is a story about the pitfalls of love and the power of forgiveness--a story fueled by the rush of venturing head first into the unknown. In spare, vivid prose reminiscent of the vernacular of the aboriginals, Nikki Gemmell explores both physical and emotional landscapes with breathtaking intensity

"Gemmell knows how to tell a good story. . . . This book has a pulse that beats loud and strong." --The Age (Melbourne)

"There's nothing wimpish about [Gemmell's] characters or her world view. Her women are strong, not easily swayed and lustily self-sufficient. In a way it's a satiric subversion of the Boy's Own On the Road hero." --The Weekend Australian