Terra Nullius
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- 59,00 kr
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- 59,00 kr
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE 2018
Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017
Shortlisted for the ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writers 2018
Shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for a Science Fiction Novel 2017
Longlisted for the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2018
Nominated for Ditmar Award Best New Talent 2018
'Artfully combining elements of literary, historical, and speculative fiction, this allegorical novel is surprising and unforgettable' - starred review, Publishers Weekly
'The truth that lies at the heart of this novel is impossible to ignore.' - Books+Publishing
'a skilfully constructed pastiche of colonisation, resistance and apocalyptic chaos with parallels that sit unsettlingly close to home' - The Big Issue
Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. Jacky was running.
The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all.
This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This TERRA NULLIUS is something new, but all too familiar.
This is an incredible debut from a striking new Australian Aboriginal voice.
'A delightfully duplicitous noodle-bender that flips the script on the Indigenous Australian survival narrative.' - Kirkus Reviews
**Includes BONUS extract from Claire G. Coleman's next novel, The Old Lie**
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Noongar novelist Claire G. Coleman challenges us to re-examine what we think we know about our own history. Placing familiar images of pre-Federation Australian settlement in a revelatory new context, her novel is reminiscent of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, if that book were transported to the Outback's arid, unforgiving landscape. Terra Nullius is both gripping, readable science fiction and a pointed critique of the ripple effects of invasion and colonisation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Coleman stuns with this imaginative, astounding debut about colonization. Coleman is a member of the Noongar people of Australia; when she writes of a dry land where settlers enslave the natives and carry out a ruthless extermination campaign against those they cannot pacify, readers will naturally assume that the story is set in Australia, though the setting remains nameless. The book begins as Jacky flees the homestead where he is kept in servitude and frequently beaten. He is headed home even though he no longer remembers where that is. Sergeant Rohan of the Colonial Troopers is tasked with capturing the young man, so he recruits some settler lads and pursues Jacky through the hot and forbidding terrain. Coleman broadens the narrative by including characters such as Esperance, a young leader in a camp of free natives, and Johnny Star, who roams with a band of native outlaws. Midway through, Coleman suddenly upends the narrative with the revelation that the settlers are not what they seem. With this twist, Coleman universalizes the experiences of invaded indigenous populations in a way that has seldom been achieved. Artfully combining elements of literary, historical, and speculative fiction, this allegorical novel is surprising and unforgettable.
