The trout opera - Matthew Condon

After several lifetimes of living anonymously in the outback, Wildred Lampe is finally marked out for greatness in his hundredth year by the Sydney Olympic Committee who need an Australian everyman for their opening ceremony. On the verge of becoming a legend, Wilfred Lampe is in his paddock when a freak accident looks likely to rob him of his chance.

Helpless in his hospital bed, Wilfred discovers he has a great-niece, the wild and troubled Aurora. She has come to take him home, where he belongs. As Wilfred and Aurora criss-cross Australia in a clapped-out old Humber Vogue, Wilfred comes face to face with the new Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern world, is taught how to repair her life.