How my mysterious childhood became a best-selling novel
Trent Dalton's debut novel was about a boy raised by drug dealers, babysat by a convicted murderer, who finds a secret underground room in his house. But all that wasn't fiction.
Back in the 1980s, when Trent Dalton was a kid growing up in Australia, he discovered that there was a secret underground room behind his stepfather's wardrobe. There were plenty of other strange things happening to him too. Like when he found a bundle of cash in the pocket of his bathrobe. Or there were the rumours that his babysitter was a murderer. It took Trent many years before he untangled these mysteries and found out the reality of his childhood. He used his life story as inspiration for his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe, which became the fastest selling in Australian history.
Presenter: Saskia Collette
Producer: Saskia Collette
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Trent Dalton. Credit: David Kelly)
Last on
Broadcasts
- Monday 12:06GMT麻豆社 World Service
- Monday 18:06GMT麻豆社 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Monday 23:06GMT麻豆社 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Tuesday 03:06GMT麻豆社 World Service
Contact Outlook
Info on how we might use your contribution on air
Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary
Step into someone else鈥檚 life and expect the unexpected