Praiseworthy
- £18.99
- Available
- Paperback published on 02/11/2023
- Page count: 736 pages
- ISBN: 9781913505929
Quick take
Told with the richness of language and imagery for which Alexis Wright is renowned, Praiseworthy is a marvel of explosive sentences, a jolt to allegory, an outraged cry against oppression, and a biting satire for the end of days.
Synopsis
In a small Aboriginal town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both ecological disaster and a gathering of the ancestors, Cause Man Steel is chasing a mad vision: a national donkey transport scheme that will guarantee his people’s independence forever. He finds, however, as he bundles feral donkeys into his Ford Falcon and dumps them en masse in the cemetery, that not all of Praiseworthy agrees. Outrage ferments at his desecration of traditional land, while Cause’s wife Dance seeks refuge with butterflies and dreams of moving their family to China.
Bad feelings reach fever pitch when citizens catch wind of the suicide of Aboriginal Sovereignty, Cause’s eldest son. All are distraught – all, that is, except eight-year-old Tommyhawk Steel, who, with his brother gone, gleefully pursues his dream of becoming white and powerful. Told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned, Praiseworthy is a marvel of explosive sentences, a shock to allegory, an outraged cry against oppression, and a biting satire for the end of days.y for which Alexis Wright has become renowned.
About the author
Alexis Wright, a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is one of Australia’s most acclaimed and fearless writers. The author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, Wright has published three works of non-fiction: Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory; and Tracker, an award-winning collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth. Her books have been published widely outside Australia, including in China, the US, the UK, Italy, France and Poland. Wright is the only author to win both the Miles Franklin Award (in 2007 for Carpentaria) and the Stella Prize (in 2018 for Tracker). Her third novel, Praiseworthy, is published by New Directions in North America, And Other Stories in Europe and Giramondo in Australia.
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And Other Stories publishes mainly contemporary writing, including many translations. Their books aim to push people’s reading limits and help them discover authors of adventurous and inspiring writing.
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