Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Her overwhelming grief is compounded by the pain, anger, and sadness of memory - of growing up in poverty before her mother’s incarceration, of the racism she and her people endured, of the mysterious disappearance of her sister when they were children an event that has haunted her and changed her life. The land itself aids him he finds the words on the wind.Īfter his passing, Poppy’s granddaughter, August, returns home from Europe, where she has lived the past 10 years, to attend his burial. Before he takes his last breath, Poppy is determined to pass on the language of his people, the traditions of his ancestors, and everything that was ever remembered by those who came before him. A member of the indigenous Wiradjuri tribe, he has spent his adult life in Prosperous House and the town of Massacre Plains, a small enclave on the banks of the Murrumby River. Knowing that he will soon die, Albert “Poppy” Gondiwindi has one final task he must fulfill. “A groundbreaking novel for black and white Australia.” (Richard Flanagan, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North )Ī young Australian woman searches for her grandfather's dictionary, the key to halting a mining company from destroying her family's home and ancestral land in this exquisitely written, heartbreaking, yet hopeful novel of culture, language, tradition, suffering, and empowerment in the tradition of Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, and Amy Harmon.

'A beautifully written novel that puts language at the heart of remembering the past and understanding the present.' (Kate Morton) Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award!

The yield winch