Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (Paperback)

Fiction - Historical - War & Military - World Literature - Australia - Indigenous - Literary - Multiple Timelines

RELEASE DATE: 9/2/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

Two extraordinary stories set five generations apart are connected by a violent colonial history, in Melissa Lucashenko's stunning historical epic

'Lucashenko is a national treasure: there are no two ways around it.' Vogue Australia

* Already the winner of eight major literary awards, including Australia's richest literary prize *

TWO UNFORGETTABLE STORIES. TWO FAMILIES. TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY.

1854: When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Brisbane – or Edenglassie, as it was once briefly known – his community still outnumbers the British settlers. Tensions are simmering just beneath the surface of a fragile peace, but hopes for independence are running high. Yet when colonial unrest tears through the region, Mulanyin's passion for his new bride clashes with his loyalty to a homeland in danger.

Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny when her grandmother Eddie has a serious fall. Winona just wants the obstinate centenarian back on her feet, but a shrewd journalist has other ideas. Eddie becomes a local celebrity, dominating the headlines as 'Queensland's Oldest Aboriginal'.

Her time in the spotlight brings past and present crashing together, the legacy of Nita and Mulanyin's tragic past reaching into Winona and Eddie's lives with consequences they couldn't have predicted.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Melissa Lucashenko is a Goorie (Aboriginal) author of Bundjalung and European heritage. Her first novel was published in 1997 and since then her work has received acclaim in many literary awards. Her sixth novel, Too Much Lip, won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, the Stella Prize, two Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, two Queensland Literary Awards and two NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, and a founding member of human rights organisation Sisters Inside. She writes about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead.

'Gripping, political, horny, moving and very, very funny. Make it into a film already.' Guardian

'Looping back and forth between the 1850s and the present and steeped in the rituals of First Nations culture, Edenglassie at times feels as vast as Australia itself. But it's also written in a spirit of reconciliation, daring to dream what a future version of that country might look like.' Daily Mail

' A significant talent... There is no denying the insight in her exploration of life in Queensland, spanning the 19th century, when it ceased being a penal colony, and the present day.' Observer