Outback Heart

Joanne van Os was just twenty-two when she met Rod Ansell. At twenty-three Rod was already a legend in Australia and around the world, having survived alone for two months without supplies in one of the harshest and most remote parts of northern Australia. To Joanne, Rod was a genuine hero who told the funniest yarns and had a philosophy on everything. She married him, and they had two beautiful sons who idolized their father. Together they lived the tough life of outback bull catchers and cattle musterers. But as time went on Joanne came to realize that Rod was both a complicated and deeply troubled man. For the sake of her sons she never gave up on Rod, even after their divorce, but just how far he'd gone only became apparent when his life finally ended in tragedy: out of his mind on drugs, Rod became involved in a shoot-out in which a young police officer was killed. Outback Heart captures the Territory life on paper: the dust, the heat, the struggle and the larger-than-life characters. But it's also a deeply moving and powerful story of a love affair and a marriage, and the pain when it all falls apart.