The stories in Born Into This throw light on a world of unique cultural practice and perspective, from Indigenous rangers trying to instill some pride in wayward urban teens on the harsh islands off the coast of Tasmania to those scraping by on the margins of white society railroaded into complex and compromised decisions. To this mix Adam Thompson manages to bring humor, pathos, and occasionally a sly twist as his characters confront racism, untimely funerals, classroom politics, and, overhanging all like a discomforting, burgeoning awareness for both white and black Australia, the inexorable damage and disappearance of the remnant natural world.