Who is Trent Dalton?
Trent Dalton is an Australian journalist and novelist from Brisbane, best known for Boy Swallows Universe, a 2018 novel based on his own childhood in the suburbs of Brisbane that became a huge bestseller.
Dalton grew up in the Brisbane suburb of Bracken Ridge, where his mother and stepfather were involved in drug dealing. His childhood friendship with a convicted criminal, Slim Halliday, a famous escapee from Boggo Road Gaol, shaped the story.
Boy Swallows Universe follows Eli Bell, a boy growing up in 1980s Brisbane, who dreams of becoming a journalist. It mixes crime, humour, love and magic realism.
Awards and adaptation
The novel won several Australian Book Industry Awards, including Book of the Year, and has sold more than a million copies. It was adapted into a Netflix series in 2024, starring Felix Cameron and Travis Fimmel.
Dalton worked for many years as a journalist at The Courier-Mail and The Australian, winning Walkley Awards.
His later novels include All Our Shimmering Skies, Lola in the Mirror and Love Stories.
Did You Know?
Slim Halliday, who befriended Dalton as a child, was known as the Houdini of Boggo Road for his escapes from the Brisbane prison.