Taronga Quotes

Then, at the heart of the city he comes upon Taronga Zoo, which has been strangely unaffected by the general chaos.

Is it an island of safety in the midst of so much danger? Or is it really the most sinister place of all?

“He had learned from long experience that the roo, lulled by his Call, would ignore her instinctive fear of the open sunlight and follow him.”

Two years after the Last Days, Australia has become a dangerous place, and a battle-ground for survival.

Ben, who has a telepathic ability to control animals, leads a hazardous existence in the bush west of the Blue Mountains.

Fourteen-year-old Ben lives rough in the bush outside Sydney, surviving in the wreckage of an Australia that fell apart after global catastrophe.

“Ben crouched beside the dying animal, aware that he could do nothing to save it now -that in a sense that he had done too much already.”

Hopeful of a less brutal life, he escapes to Sydney - only to be further disillusioned.

Ben has the strange ability to soothe and control animals, and this makes him valuable to the older and crueler boy who hunts the animals Ben Calls.

“He could see the dingo immediately above him, its coat a deep gold in the sunlight, its head cooked curiously to one side. Its eyes, he notices, conveyed a sense not of alarm, but of trust.”