''The Swan Book'' is the third novel by the

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

author

Alexis Wright Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is a Waanyi (Aboriginal Australian) writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria'' and the 2018 Stella Prize for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" ...

. It met with critical acclaim when it was published, and was short-listed for Australia's premier literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award.

Plot Introduction

''The Swan Book'' is set in the future, with Aboriginal people still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows a girl who is pulled from a tree as a child after having been lost and gang-raped, and how she grows up raised by a European immigrant and seemingly guided by swans. After the death of her guardian, she is betrothed to a boy who grows up to become the first Indigenous President of Australia (Prime Minister has been abandoned in this future), and later marries him, despite retaining a childlike mind even as an adult.

Awards and nominations

* 2014 shortlisted

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

—

Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing The Victorian Premier's Prize for Indigenous Writing is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of cont ...

* 2014 shortlisted the Stella Prize * 2014 winner ASAL Awards —

ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

* 2014 shortlisted

Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–19 ...

* 2014 shortlisted

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

— Christina Stead Prize for Fiction * 2016 winner

Kate Challis RAKA Award The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually by the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Indigenous Australian creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: ...

Reviews

*Gleeson-White, Jane. "Going viral

2013-08-23. Retrieved 2015-07-03. *Tierney, James. "The Swan Book

2015-02-10. Retrieved 2015-07-03. *Webb, Jen. "Living wound: The Swan Book

2013-09. Retrieved 2015-07-03.

External links

Official listing for the novel
at the website of

Giramondo Publishing Giramondo Publishing (Giramondo Publishing Company) is an independent Australian literary small press founded in 1995. It is a publisher of poetry, fiction and non-fiction by Australian and overseas writers, and works in translation from Chinese, ...

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan Book 2013 Australian novels ALS Gold Medal winning works Giramondo Publishing books