The Swan Book by Alexis Wright

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Set in the future in a post-climate-change apocalypse, The Swan Book is the story of a mute Aboriginal girl, Oblivion Ethyl(ene). Hauled from her burrow in the roots of a tree as a child, traumatised by rape, Oblivia is saved by the European émigré-crone, Bella Donna of the Champions. Driven from her own land by environmental catastrophe, Bella Donna fills Oblivia’s mind with epic legends of migratory swans, and soon the foetid swamp of their home begins to bristle with the arrival of thousands of black swans, drawn inexorably towards Oblivia. Then comes another emissary from distant lands: Warren Finch, soon to be Australia’s first Aboriginal president, come to claim Oblivia as his promised wife.

This wildly adventurous, operatic hallucination of a novel encompasses indigenous politics, climate change, European history, global migration, displacement and grief. It is a savage critique of contemporary government approaches to indigenous culture, achieved through its telescopic imagination, sly humour and soaring poetry. Sweeping through history, across continents and cultures – yet never losing touch with the grit of raw experience – The Swan Book is a work of thrilling ambition.