SAYONARA BABY, a novel by Ruth Skilbeck

“A sensitive and convincing account of Australian youth culture.” – Kirkus Reviews

Sayonara Baby is a novel about Roxanne 'Roxy' Bergson’s life and experiences with one of Adelaide’s Art Scandals, a (fictional) group of artists, when she moves to the city to go to college. She documents her relationship with Raymond Furnett, who is an older art student, and friends, in stories, diary entries and letters. The action shifts as they travel to various cities and the rainforest and Roxy's family’s holiday shack in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. It is an authentic and respectful portrait of the ways of life of young artists and writers in the turbulent years of punk in Australia in the early 1980s.

Publication details:

Title: Sayonara Baby

Author: Ruth Skilbeck

Format: Paperback

Publication date: December 2017

Page count: 242 pp

ISBN: 9780994540522

Cover photograph by Ruth Skilbeck

A record of this publication is held at the National Library of Australia.

This novel was first published in paperback in 2017, and is also published as a stand alone with the title Cafe Life in the Antipodes.

A new edition with a new cover published in 2023 is now available replacing this edition.