Cirrus@Austlit

'From the author of Spinifex Baby, winner of the National 2014 Finch Memoir Prize.

'What does it mean to have no place to call home, and no family to turn to?

'Manna, named for the regal white gums and yellow-tailed black cockatoos of the Central Highlands of Tasmania, was a wild, strong, fiercely independent child. But Manna’s life was torn apart, first by her mother’s abandonment, then by her father’s coldness. Craving connection, yet wounded by her past, Manna pushes away the last of the people she cares about.

'Wild places can heal but are they enough? A whale stranding and an encounter with a silver-haired woman force Manna to reckon with the elemental forces within and around her. Grieving and alone, she must tear open old wounds and confront the people she once loved the most, if she is to reclaim her identity as a daughter of the Plateau.'  (Publication summary)

'Spinifex Baby is a beautifully written and evocative hymn to the Australian landscape and to the strength that lies within us all.

'I thought I knew how hard it would be. What I didn’t know was that it would test me to the inner core. This desert with its rolling dune fields is an unforgiving land that relentlessly destroys even its own ancient beauty. It is a place where, compared to the age of the landscape, a single life means less than a grain of sand. I could not have known that the biggest challenge I would face would not be from the piercing sun, not from the unforgiving dust, not even from the aching loneliness of isolation, but from the treachery of my own self.

'When Karen and her partner Al set forth from the cold mountains of Tasmania to the 45-plus degree heat of central Australia to transform a cattle station into a conservation reserve, they were ready to embrace the beauty of the land and throw themselves into the task of protecting native plants and animals. They thought they had all the skills necessary to beat the heat, the dust and their isolation from society. However, when Karen became unexpectedly pregnant, their lives were turned upside down. Suddenly their biggest danger was not their exposure to the harsh elements but to the deepest fears that resided within themselves…' (Publication summary)