The Quiet Slave: A History in Eight Episodes is a piece of historical fiction that is based on the lives of the Cocos Malays and describes the first years of settlement on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a tiny atoll midway between Perth and Sri Lanka. The story is told through the eyes of a female slave in the possession of Alexander Hare.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to poet and author John Mateer about his various literary projects, including this remarkable story of a race of people once exiled on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.