The Ballad of Desmond Kale

For Lorna McDonald
with love and thanks
for gifts of conversation, friendship, and example
over a lifetime

Desmond Kale escapes from his detention at Botany Bay and heads into the bush to look after a flock of Merino sheep. Meanwhile the wardens at the prison seek his re-arrest.

Luise Toma on "MC Reviews" noted: "McDonald tells his epic with opulence and a humour so understated you may find yourself laughing pages after you have read a joke because a regular brain is unable to process the author’s quick wit at appropriate speed. Capturing the lingo of the times and circumstances, in a way that makes me wonder whether the man might have a time machine stowed away in his estate’s stable, McDonald evokes a rich cast of foul-mouthed convicts and stiff officials, bumbling beaurocrats and long-suffering mothers, missionaries, indigenous folk, idiots and bush-philosophers. All of them come to life so easily and in such a convincing manner, the novel reads almost like a giant story board for something of the likes of Nick Cave's The Proposition."[2]

• Miles Franklin Award, winner 2006[3]
• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted 2007[3]
• Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Fiction, winner 2008[3]

• 2005 in Australian literature