Longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize
Melissa Lucashenko – Edenglassie
Fiction · University of Queensland Press
About the Book
When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice.
Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Granny Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.
In this brilliant epic, Melissa Lucashenko torches Queensland’s colonial myths, while reimagining an Australian future.
“These are characters who need to exist in the world. Lucashenko’s testament to them and their stories makes us all bear witness.”
– 2024 Stella Prize Judges
About the Author
Melissa Lucashenko
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.
Further Reading
Reviews
“Edenglassie deftly showcases the complexity, sophistication and wisdom in the laws of sovereign First Nations and the Elders who guide the protagonists in the past and present and deconstructs colonial myths.” Shivani Prabhu, Books + Publishing
“Edenglassie paints a nuanced picture of the complex weave of relationships between the colonists and Goorie people, as well as bearing witness to terrible acts committed on country.” Bernard Caleo, Readings
“Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel, Edenglassie, takes the reader on a journey through magnificent and heartbreaking dual narratives set five generations apart.” Tamika Woorrell, The Conversation
Links
Sarah Malik interviews Melissa Lucashenko in this episode of The SBS Book Club.
Judges’ Report
These are characters who need to exist in the world. Lucashenko’s testament to them and their stories makes us all bear witness.
The omniscient narrator of Edenglassie takes the character – if not form – of the “Voice”, a unifying presence in the lives of its central blak protagonists. The “Voice” draws into being the spirituality that connects Country and its people across deep time and the braided temporal narratives of the novel.
In contemporary Brisbane, Lucaschenko’s Grannie Eddie, granddaughter and activist Winona, and DNA-tested newcomer, Dr Johnny, talk up to the ongoing injustices of cross-cultural relations; the complex dynamics of blak community; and the deep politics of Aboriginality. Meanwhile, in 1840s and 1850s Edenglassie (precedent to the independent colony of Brisbane), cultural giants like resistance warrior Dundalli, speak truth to state-sanctioned violence.
Edenglassie is Lucashenko’s seventh novel and clearest testament yet to her Goorie worldview. It is a storyline that centres blak perspectives and experiences in the fight for truth and identity justice, delivered with empathy and authentic characterisation.
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