Trap

First edition
Author	Peter Mathers
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Cassell, Australia
Publication date	1966
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Preceded by	–
Followed by	The Wort Papers

Trap (1966) is the first novel by Australian author Peter Mathers.^[1] It won the Miles Franklin Award for 1966.^[2]

The novel follows the life of Jack Trap, a man living on the outskirts of Melbourne in the 1960s. Trap is of mixed Irish, English and Aboriginal background, in his forties and fat. He joins with a small group of outsiders and travels to a mining lease on Cape York to form a co-operative community.

In The Canberra Times Maurice Dunlevy found that the attempted satire fell well short of its target: "Trap is a first novel and reads like one. It attempts to be satirical, shocking and avant garde — succeeds only in being naive...His irony is too heavy, his targets are too obvious and he never cuts deeper than satirical revue."^[3]

Roger Milliss in the Tribune (Sydney), found "The style is often reminiscent of that of Patrick White's admittedly not-very-edifying satires of suburbia. And, dealing as it does with the aboriginal question (if Mr. Mathers' complex theme can be summed up so inadequately), it possesses some generic connections with a whole stream of our writing, from Coonardoo on."^[4]

Following the novel's initial publication by Cassell in 1966,^[5] the book was published as follows:

• 1970 Sphere, UK^[1]
• 1978 Nelson, Australia^[6]
• 2003 Sydney University Press, Australia^[7]

• 1966 in Australian literature