Cameron Stewart asks many things in this novel, most pensively: what does it take to walk away from one life to another? He asks us to consider how grief and loss can separate people but also bring others together. While asking these questions, he draws the Australian environment around his characters, allowing it to become its own entity, its own being. In that way, the story is an ode to novels by Henry Lawson, Patrick White and Alexis Wright.

The story centres on Ingvar, a type of shadowy swagman walking through Australia until he rests at the foot of a hill on Hilda’s tropical property. Hilda, newly widowed, is righteous and grieving, but accepts him on to her property, allowing him respite from his travels and space to ruminate on his choices. She has little contact with other people but keeps up a steady dialogue with her dead husband. Further in town, Ingvar meets other residents, kind people, and his experiences with this community only heighten all that he has left. The Australian hinterland is ever-present with leeches and ferns, bird song and heat, wild pigs and ticks alongside long, winding roads and the generosity of strangers.

The bewitchingly slow and steady pace of this story allows us to consider the price we pay for love and absolution. It is a quiet novel, one that was surely created for you to consider your own expectations of resilience and despair. This unusual novel is Stewart’s first and is a disarming read. I have not encountered anything like it for a long time and it has stayed with me now for some time. It is for readers with time. Why Do Horses Run? is a novel that reminds you not to judge.