Brisbane in the mirror: The real stories of homelessness and hope behind Trent Dalton’s latest novel

Few authors are as skilled at intertwining deeply personal stories with broader social issues as Brisbane’s Trent Dalton. At The Lady Musgrave Trust’s 16th Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness, Dalton spoke candidly with 3rd Space CEO Lesley Leece about how Brisbane’s homeless population, and his own turbulent past, informed his new book, ‘Lola in the Mirror’.

A two-time Walkley Award-winning journalist, Dalton is best known for his debut novel, 2018’s ‘Boy Swallows Universe’. The semi-autobiographical tale became the fastest selling Australian debut novel ever, and has since been adapted into an acclaimed theatre production and a major global Netflix series.

His latest book, ‘Lola in the Mirror’, tells the story of a 17-year-old girl and her mother, sleeping rough in a Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the Brisbane River. The young, unnamed protagonist is dragged into Brisbane’s underworld, but dreams of finding fame and security as a successful artist.

The book is partly inspired by people Dalton has met over the last 16 years at 3rd Space, a daytime drop-in centre in Fortitude Valley where people experiencing or at risk of homelessness can find support, friendship and dignity.

3rd Space provides thousands of people every year with hot showers, café-style meals, and access to services to help them break the cycle of homelessness, including medical, mental health, law, tenancy, employment and financial support services.

In conversation with 3rd Space CEO Lesley Leece at The Lady Musgrave Trust’s 16th Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness, Dalton said he first came across 3rd Space when someone he loved became homeless on the streets of Sydney in 2008. Feeling helpless, Dalton attempted to process what was happening the only way he knew how – by writing about it.

“I just came up with this ridiculous notion that I’d go homeless for a week,” he said. “I thought I could find out what it felt like to be homeless, like an expectant father wearing a bloody pregnancy suit or something, and then write a story about it. It was a flawed notion, as I soon found out after I walked into 3rd Space.

“I was scared. I couldn’t sleep on the street at night, so I was looking for a place to sleep through the day, and that’s how I found 3rd Space, with its amazing daybeds. And one of the amazing workers there sized me up and he said, ‘You know, this whole exercise is bulls**t, because you will never know what this feels like. Because you have what most of the people in here don’t.’

“I thought he was going to say ‘access to shelter’ or ‘a well-stocked fridge’. But instead he said, ‘Love’. He said, ‘The hardest thing everyone in this place is dealing with is the sense that they’re not loved. But you’ve got a wife and two little kids you’re going to go back to when you’re finished with this experiment. So what I’d love for you to do, when you’re done with your dodgy story, is to come back and please just listen to their stories.’”

Dalton did. This resulted in a fundraising book called ‘Detours’, in which he interviewed 20 people he met at 3rd Space about the ‘detour moments’ – from childhood trauma and mental health issues to terrible misfortune – that set them on the path to homelessness.

That led to another book, ‘Love Stories’, after Dalton was chastised by one of his subjects for focusing too much on “the dark stuff” about life on the street. And, eventually, it helped inform Dalton’s nuanced, true-to-life depiction of Brisbane’s homeless community in ‘Lola in the Mirror’.

Facing the monster

Today, as a 3rd Space ambassador, Dalton continues to be inspired by the stories of the people he meets there. But, much like ‘Boy Swallows Universe’, ‘Lola in the Mirror’ also takes inspiration from Dalton’s own past.

“Sorry if this goes too deep,” Dalton told Forum attendees, “but it’s the deepest story I’ve got. I often write from very deep places, because I find that’s the best place to write from – truth.

“The story of ‘Lola in the Mirror’ really starts with my mum, living in Sydney in the 1960s. She was one of seven kids, and when her old man ran off on her, she was left to help look after the other kids.

“She got tired of doing that, and at about the age of 17, she took off, hitchhiked her way to Brisbane, met my dad on the highway, and fell in love.

“My dad remains the most beautiful man I’ve ever met in my life, but he was a shocking drinker. One night, Mum took off with her four kids in tow, and found herself in a wonderful women’s shelter here in this beautiful city of ours. She met a woman there who said, ‘Come and hang with me at my house’. At that house, she met a heroin dealer.

“That heroin dealer became my first real father figure – you know him as Lyle in ‘Boy Swallows Universe’, played by Travis Fimmel in the Netflix series. He ended up getting put away for 10 years in Boggo Road Gaol, and Mum went to prison for two years. That was a hard two years for Mum, but not as hard as what came next.

“‘Boy Swallows Universe’ was about the 1980s. But for Mum, the 1990s were infinitely worse. That’s what’s not in ‘Boy Swallows Universe’.

“Mum got out of prison, and she went to an incredible halfway house in Highgate Hill, which was filled with women who were getting themselves together… It's not uncommon for women in that situation to find themselves in need of a home, so they can get access to see their children. It’s not uncommon, then, for women in that situation to quickly fall in love with the wrong guy.

“Mum fell in love with a guy who seemed charming and, on the face of it, pretty nice. He was a big guy. Huge. And after a while, he showed his true colours. He was incredibly violent and narcissistic, and he haunted my dreams until… well, I’m 45 now, so until I was 45.

“One night, Mum escaped from this guy. She ran to a Telstra phone box. It was nighttime in the suburbs, and no one was around. She was just about to dial 000, and then this giant man burst through the Telstra phone box and strangled my mum. Wrapped his hands around my mum’s neck and all but killed her. Left her as a bag of bones on the concrete floor.

“And my mum… she was done. She was done with life. She thought she’d survived the worst time of her life in Boggo Road, and then she got out and found that things were worse. And the one thing – the only thing – that got her up off the floor of that Telstra phone box was the absurd, ridiculous notion that one day, one of her sons might do something worth sticking around for.

“She got back up. She called 000, and the cops came. And they said, ‘I’m sorry, there’s nowhere for you to go. The DV shelters are full. You have two options. You can be homeless, or – and this is what we advise – you can go back to the monster and find ways not to agitate him.’

“So she went back. She went back for four more years of hell. Just so she could have a home, and she could see her boys. She did it for us.

“The four of us were living with Dad at Bracken Ridge, and catching the 522 bus into the City every second Saturday to see Mum. But we knew what Mum was doing. And one day this cool thing happened. This beautiful older brother of mine, Joel, became a man, and he got a yellow Gemini, and he came and picked us all up. He was 17 or 18, Ben was 16, Jesse was 14 and I was 13.

“We all piled into Joel’s yellow Gemini and we drove around to Bardon, where this guy was living near Toowong Cemetery. And Joel knocked on the front door and he said, ‘Enough. We’re taking Mum.’

“And this giant man… he was hopped up on speed or something really nasty, so he just lost his mind. He ran at Joel, and Joel tackled him under the armpits like he was Wally Lewis, and drove him out onto the front yard.

“The beautiful thing about Mum having four sons is it meant there was one son per limb. We held this man down for half an hour, waiting for the cops to come… and this time they took her to a DV shelter.

“And then the City of Brisbane – and I’m talking about all of the people [at the Forum] and the agencies you represent; the shelters you represent; and the communities you represent – wrapped their arms around my mum. My mum, who this city didn’t know from a bar of soap.

“A housing support agency got her some rental assistance to help her get a place in Everton Park. A charity shop furnished that home. And another agency helped her get a job as a traffic controller, which she did for 10 years.

“It’s so moving to me that the City of Brisbane helped my mum to not be homeless. Because that was her only other option, and it terrified me. And it terrifies me now, because [if this happened] in 2024, there’s just no doubt Mum would be homeless. There’s just no doubt about it.

“And that’s just Mum’s story! Nevermind what was going on for the Dalton boys with Dad, who was renting his place in Bracken Ridge for $50 a week. $50 a week to house four teenage boys! I don’t think we’d be able to get that house now… and then we’d be living in Dad’s dodgy, rusted Toyota HiAce, or begging one of his sisters to take us in.

“So I was thinking about that, and it really hit home for me how we’re all just one or two steps away from homelessness. So that’s part of the ‘Lola’ story.

“But the deeper part… the deeper part is what happened after Mum went to that DV shelter that night. The deeper part is what happened when the Dalton boys went home. And we sat there and I said, ‘I’m gonna kill that guy’. Joking about it, but not really joking about it.

“I used to have this dream where I’d hop in this car. Whatever dream I was having, if it was a dream where I had to escape from something, I’d end up hopping in this car. I’d get in the car and think I was getting away. And then the driver of the car would always be that giant man from 1995.

“That fear kept coming back. It never went away, for any of us. I’ve talked to my brothers about it, and he’s haunted all of us.

“But I want you to know… I’ve made that guy the villain in three books. I’ve turned him into the villain. And about six months ago, I realised… I really haven’t dreamt about him in a while.

“So what I want to tell you is, I killed the monster.”

‘Lola in the Mirror’, published by Harper Collins Australia, is in bookstores now.

Learn more about the important work being done by 3rd Space, and follow The Lady Musgrave Trust for more stories from the 16th Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness.