Robert Hillman on his new novel and giving voice to others

Robert Hillman grew up in rural Victoria, Australia, where the practical job as a butcher's apprentice his father had helped to secure him failed to appeal. So, at the tender age of 16 he fled by boat to the other side of the world, bartering his way from Europe through the Middle East, all the while with typewriter in hand. His adventure is captured in his 2004 award-winning memoir The Boy in the Green Suit. With more than 60 works to his name, Robert has also helped give voice to many others. He helped Zahra Ghahramani detail her imprisonment in an Iranian jail as a college student in My Life as a Traitor. In The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif he helps Najaf Mazari tell of his early life as a shepherd boy in Afghanistan, his capture and torture by the Taliban and his time in an Australian detention camp. He's also written a number of works of fiction, and his latest novel is The Bride of Almond Tree, set in post-World War II Australia and Russia.