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Australian author, Trent Dalton, injected the literary lexicon with an uplifting tale of redemption and loss of innocence through his 2018 debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe. Now, the award-winning piece of lit-fic has been adapted into a seven-part limited series on Netflix, with a legion of local talents taking the setting of 1980s backward suburbian Brisbane to the small screen. The show’s bittersweet coming-of-age epic has been in production since mid-2022, with all episodes concurrently dropped on the streaming giant on Tuesday, January 11.
For those who missed the fervour surrounding the best-selling novel upon its release, Boy Swallows Universe sees precocious 13-year-old Eli Bell (Felix Cameron and Zac Burgess) grapple with growing up amongst a slew of wayward tribulations. His mother, portrayed by Chanel girl Phoebe Tonkin, is incarcerated and addicted to heroin. His father, played by Simon Baker, an equally unstable alcoholic. The only constant present in his life is the local drug dealer, who happens to be his step-father (Travis Fimmel) and his babysitter (screen legend Bryan Brown), Slim, a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes.
But despite the traumas in the Bells’ life, Boy Swallows Universe is an edifying testament to the power of familial love, friendship and the might of one boy—against all odds. Given the subject matter, many newcomers have already questioned if Boy Swallows Universe is based on a true story. While it’s not a direct biography of the author’s life, some real-life events inspire the stirring plot. Ahead, GRAZIA divulges the fact from fiction.
Watch the trailer for Boy Swallows Universe below:
Is Boy Swallows Universe Based On A True Story?
Boy Swallows Universe Is A “Semi-Autobiography” Based On Trent Dalton’s Childhood
Speaking to the press on Boy Swallow Universe’s promotional tour, Dalton revealed that the book, and by correlation the show, is “50/50” based on fact and fiction. The contents embellish formative moments in Dalton’s childhood, with the revered author explaining the fiction was “wishful thinking”. “It’s from my real life,” Dalton explained, noting that Eli “does a lot of what I would have [done if I could]. It was all wishful thinking.”
In a blog for publisher Harper Collin’s, Dalton, who is also a journalist, wrote in 2018 that Boy Swallows Universe is “all of me”. Read the full excerpt from his post below.
“All of me is in here. Everything I’ve ever seen. Everything I’ve ever done. Every girl I ever kissed on a wagged school day, every punch I ever threw, every tooth I ever lost in a Housing Commission street scrap and every flawed, conflicted, sometimes even dangerous Queenslander I’ve ever come across, as the son of two of the most incredible and beautiful and sometimes troubled parents a kid could ever be born to.
“The key characters all draw on the people I love most in the world. The most beautiful and complex people I’ve ever known, and I never even had to walk out the door of my house to find them. I just wanted to give the world a story. To turn all these crazy and sad and tragic and beautiful things I’ve seen into a crazy, sad, tragic and beautiful story.”
Phoebe Tonkins’ Frances “Frankie” Bell Is Inspired By Trent Dalton’s Mother
Like Tonkins’ character, Dalton’s mother was briefly incarcerated for a period in his childhood. “My mum did time for two years in the late 80s,” he said. Dalton explained that he spent that period “just missing her”, but it wasn’t until a Christmas Day in the late 2010s that he decided to chronicle the events through the novel.
“I’m often reminded by my gut that kicks from the inside sometimes how my own mother’s life story remains the most harrowing story I’ve ever had the strange and often unsettling honour of being a significant part of,” Dalton wrote in a blog. “The book doesn’t say a tenth of what’s she’s been through and, in turn, my admiration for her, for coming out the other side of those things.”
Dalton also told the press that the book is “a story about a kid who wants to bust into a women’s prison on Christmas Day to save his mum’s life.” “You know, my mum loved Christmas and she shouldn’t have been spending Christmas inside a prison,” he added.
Yes, Trent Dalton Was Really Friends With A Notorious Felon
Legendary Australian actor Bryan Brown, who has garnered a reputation for becoming our go-to underbelly crime boss, plays Arthur “Slim” Halliday in Boy Swallows Universe—one of the few characters in the book who is actually a real person. Haliday was a convicted murderer and prison escapee known as “The Houdini of Boggo Road”. He’s also described by Dalton as, “the funniest, kindest old bloke”.
Haliday escaped the now-defunct maximum security Boggo Road gaol twice in the 1940s before finally being convicted for the murder of 23-year-old Gold Coast taxi driver, Athol McCowan, in 1952.
Speaking to the Townsville Bulletin, Dalton shared the following anecdote about his relationship with Halliday: “He’d let me turn the wheel and honk the horn. I loved the guy. He was the funniest, kindest old bloke. He was a man who dropped around the house of this guy my mum was in love with.”
“To me he was this mythical guy that my brothers would whisper about when we were playing in the backyard,” Dalton continued. “Slim used to carry around a fine-tooth comb to slick back his hair. I pictured him killing the taxi driver by leaning over into the front seat and slicing the taxi driver’s neck with a fine-tooth comb, which is just bizarre.”
When Is Boy Swallows Universe Released?
All seven episodes of Boy Swallows Universe are now available to stream exclusively on Netflix. The show stars Simon Baker (Robert), Phoebe Tonkin (Frankie), Travis Fimmel (Lyle) and newcomers Felix Cameron and Zac Burgess (Eli) and Lee Tiger Halley (Gus). Anthony LaPaglia, Talk To Me‘s Sophie Wilde and Deborah Mailman also feature.
