AustLit

A middle-aged Aboriginal woman nurses her old white mother. During her tending of the old woman, she expresses her frustrations and previously suppressed anger, her own need for warmth and love, and her personal loneliness. Her memories and dreams invade her nerve-fraying routine until the old woman dies and she begins to experience an immense sense of loss.

In the ABC Radio National program, It's Not A Race in May 2017, Marcia Langton notes that Night Cries is the retelling of Jedda as a horror story.

'In prose that is both elegant and lyrical, David Malouf departs from the little-known facts of Ovid's exile beyond the pale of civilization to create a deeply moving novel of extraordinary beauty. An outcast in a vast wasteland at the edge of the Black Sea, Ovid discovers a feral child. As he teaches the boy to speak the language of the civilized world, the child tutors him in his own tongue, the language of nature, and the once barren landscape begins to resonate with meaning.' (Publisher's blurb)

'It is 1962 and the world is worried about the Cuban missile crisis, except for Lewis, a youth on the cusp of manhood, growing up in a Melbourne housing commission suburb. He is preoccupied by flying saucer, much to the disgust of his friend Brian who can think only of losing his virginity. Lewis finds a natural soulmate in local tom-boy, Dulcie, who has her own confusions about approaching womanhood. And then out of nowhere Lewis's errant father returns to stay, as if he had never gone' (Currency Press).

Although the play largely focuses on adolescent issues, it is meant for an adult audience. Among the themes explored are sexuality, gender, prejudice, cultural identity and the relationship between memory and personal identity.