The Yield

When August’s grandfather—the bedrock of a multi-generational Wiradjuri family—dies, she must return to Australia, and to the town of Prosperous. There, she comes face-to-face with the things that have driven her out, a process that began long before her birth. The book’s three narrators chart the casualties of colonialism: the loss of indigenous culture, the stamping out of language, the land that is taken and forever altered. But the book is so much more than a catalogue of losses, and Winch’s song is ultimately one of identity—and history—reclaimed.  

The Yield and my book came out about the same time. I loved reading this work by an Aboriginal author about a character whose name reminded me of a place where I spent much of my childhood, on a relative’s farm at Goondiwindi in western Queensland. The Yield is a beautifully written novel, with language at its heart. The way the reader is encouraged to feel the indigenous words, to roll them around in their mouth, and feel them with their tongue, is very powerful. There is a scene in this book of a tree falling over and exposing its… show more.

It’s easy to see why this novel won the 2020 Miles Franklin Award (Australia’s highest literary honour). Not only does it tell an important story about the need to preserve Indigenous Australian culture and languages, but its characters are so deftly wrought, so relatable, that you feel like you are there with them, battling to save Prosperous from destruction and avoid dispossession following the death of Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi and the slow, terminal decline of all he once knew. Winch’s evocative prose, particularly obvious in ‘Poppy’s’ voice, is a delight to read. Augustine, with her search for belonging, remembering, and… show more.