Hiam is the story of a journey through both a psychic and geographic landscape, a journey through disintegration and loss, a journey for rebirth and renewal and the search for self identity. Hiam, is an Arab migrant woman, who abandons Adelaide to unravel her life and memories on her way to the North after her family and identity have been destroyed. In the course of the novel she weaves an identity out of past, present, stories, dreams and the Australian landscape with which she engages for the first time. This novel in some way explores the pressures, fragilities and strengths of exiled communities. It is also a story of universal human grief, individual courage and the will, not only to survive, but to live fully in the world.
This novel is a winner of the Australian Vogel National Literary Award (1997), Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers (1999) and the Dobbie Award (1999).
Sallis, Eva. Hiam, St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen and Unwin, 1998.
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