Praiseworthy (hardcover edition)

This product is the hardcover edition of Praiseworthy. There is a paperback edition available here.

The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Australian author Alexis Wright, in a limited edition hardcover.

Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days.

The writing is the best in the country, some of the best in the world; we call to mind Alexis Wright when they talk about our country’s great literary voice.
Tara June Winch

I’m awed by the range, experiment and political intelligence of [Alexis Wright’s] work…she is vital on the subject of land and people.
Robert Macfarlane

Monumental…Praiseworthy blew me away…If you think you know what assimilation is, you should read Praiseworthy and think again.
Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Australian Book Review

An abundant odyssey that contains a formidable vision of Australia’s future. This is a long journey through the imagination, a novel both urgent and deeply contemplated…The rich interrelations of ancestral spirits, larger-than-life characters, and Country all derive from the Aboriginal traditions of storytelling. But there are also signs of literary influence from every compass point on the map, including, most notably, the surrealism and magic realism of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Jack Cameron Stanton, The Age 

Events

13 April 2023: Readings – Alexis Wright in conversation with Ivor Indyk (VIC)

27 April 2023: Sorrento Writers Festival – Alexis Wright at Montalto (VIC)

11 May 2023: Brisbane Writers Festival – Alexis Wright on Praiseworthy (QLD)

14 May 2023: Brisbane Writers Festival – Closing Address (QLD)

23 May 2023: Sydney Writers’ Festival – Opening Night (NSW)

27 May 2023: Sydney Writers’ Festival – In conversation with Sisonke Msimang (NSW)