I've been watching TV footage of election preparation in PNG while reading Drusilla Modjeska's first novel The Mountain. Reality and fiction interweave as the figure of Michael Somare features in the news today and passes through this story that commences with PNG on the verge of independence.

The first half of this book follows the story of Rika, the Dutch photographer whose anthropologist husband, Leonard, brings her to PNG where he will be filming mountain clans. Rika stays behind in Port Moresby with her cluster of white and indigenous friends when Leonard goes to the mountain, and she falls in love with Aaron, a European educated local man who is destined to play a leadership role in the establishment of the first PNG government. Rika's only visit to the mountain is to tell Leonard that their relationship is ended. Rika is troubled equally by Aaron's self-sacrificing political involvement and her yearning for a child.

The second half of the book is Jericho's story. He is the child brought from the mountain and offered to Aaron and Rika as their own at the close of the first part of the novel. Educated in England Jericho is in PNG to help Bili, (his childhood friend and current lover) defend the rights of indigenous clans whose lands are threatened by corporate interests. Jericho journeys back to the mountain, the village where he was born - "a stranger who cannot find his path home". Here he finds a society of great ceremony, peace and order, in stark contrast to the anarchy of Port Moresby.

Drusilla Modjeska's first novel is informed by an appreciation of the many cultures of PNG. It is a well written and moving account full of yearning - for a child, for a sense of home and a sense of community. Highly recommended.