AustLit

"A provocative book by Petru Popescu. The Last Wave, an Australian mystery drama from 1977 is about a white solicitor (Burton) in Sydney--whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case and discovers that he shares a strange, mystical connection with a small group of local Australian Aborigines accused of a murder. Plagued by bizarre dreams, Burton senses an otherworldly connection to one of the accused. He also feels connected to the increasingly strange weather phenomena besetting the city, his dreams intensify along with his obsession with the murder case, which he comes to believe is an Aboriginal tribal killing by curse, in which the victim believed. Learning more about Aboriginal practices and the concept of Dreamtime as a parallel world of existence, Burton comes to believe the strange weather bodes of a coming apocalypse."

Based on an original idea by Peter Weir, The Last Wave concerns a young Sydney lawyer who, while defending four Aboriginal men against a murder charge, becomes troubled by dreams. He soon begins to feel the pull of magic forces beneath the surface of civilisation. A series of apparently random occurences assume a disturbing pattern and the city becomes a facade for a place of ancient ritual.