AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.
'In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication: For Archie James (Born 4 August 2018)
Only women know
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
What I’m Reading
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2020; -
Australia in Three Books
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 79 no. 2 2020; (p. 14-17)
— Review of Always Another Country : A Memoir of Exile and Home 2018 single work autobiography ; The White Girl 2019 single work novel -
Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 Shortlist Reading Guide
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , July 2020;'Stories of trauma — personal, communal and national — dominate the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's most prestigious literary prize, in its 63rd year.'
-
Tony Birch Tackles Race and Gender in New Book
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 23 October no. 712 2019; (p. 21) 'For a book written by an Aboriginal man about Aboriginal people, the title The White Girl might come as a surprise.' (Introduction) -
Tony Birch, The White Girl
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 79 no. 1 2019; (p. 199-204)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel 'Tony Birch is usually identified as an accomplished writer of literary fiction as well as a leading intellectual. His most recent book, The White Girl, has been found wanting by at least one reader, who complains of its “uncommon moral simplicity.” Notwithstanding his praise for Birch’s “limpid grace as a prose writer,” Geordie Williamson finds that the book offers “a rainbow parade of contemporary merits.” The review appeared first in the Australian (which has a paywall). The full review was then posted on a literary reviews blog, by Williamson himself, after parts had been quoted and criticised by a blogger.' (Introduction)
-
Books Roundup
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , July 2019;
— Review of A Constant Hum 2019 selected work short story ; The White Girl 2019 single work novel -
And Still the Birds Sing
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 78 no. 2 2019; (p. 188-191)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel ; Terra Nullius 2017 single work novel ; Catching Teller Crow 2018 single work novel ; Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel'As some recently published works have shown, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers are continuing to embrace fiction-writing as a vessel for speaking truth to power. Constantly branching out into new genres—experimenting, fusing, transforming—there’s a noticeable increase in First Peoples speculative fiction being published in Australia.
With each line across the page, the colonial grip on the continent loosens. Fingers unclasp, story by story. Not all of these stories are from deep time—some are reimagined or even newly born—but they all carry power. Story-trails weave across paper and screen towards a common destination: truth-telling.' (Introduction)
-
'A Piece of Scrub like Deane : Tony Birch's Resonant New Novel
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 413 2019; (p. 50-51)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel 'If the number of reviews and interviews are indicators of a new book’s impact, Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl has landed like a B-format sized asteroid. Birch’s publisher estimates a substantial number of reviews and other features since publication. I’ve consulted none of them. Usually I can’t help myself from immersing myself in any and all artefacts of literary reception. With The White Girl I wanted to stay with the work, stay with Odette Brown and with Sissy, stay on the fringes of the fictional town called Deane, stay on that train to the big smoke – stay with The White Girl and reflect on where it took me.' (Introduction) -
[Review] The White Girl
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , August no. 158 2019; (p. 64)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel 'One hundred and twenty-seven people. That was the census count of “the good white settlers” in the town where Odette Brown lives. Odette was not counted. None of her people were counted. They exist as shadows in a white world.' (Introduction) -
Black and White Testament to Era
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18 May 2019; (p. 18)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel'Torpid beneath an inevitable sun, its dray-wide streets a study in shadow and glare, the country town of Deane — primary setting of Tony Birch’s new novel The White Girl, his fourth in a dozen years — is vividly rendered for a place that does not really exist. This is probably because some version of it has sprung up in so many parts of this country that only a generic instance is big enough to contain them all.'(Introduction)
-
Tony Birch on The White Girl : ‘No Aboriginal Person I Know Is Intact’
Paul Daley
(interviewer),
2019
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 June 2019;'Birch’s new novel is an allegory of good, evil and the legacy of Australia’s colonial past – with strong black women at its core.'
-
y
Tony Birch : On 'The White Girl'
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2019
16811431
2019
single work
interview
podcast
'Tony Birch has appeared on The Garret before, and in this episode we are going to do something a little different. Our host Astrid Edwards had the honour of reading The White Girl (2019) before publication, and this interview represents Tony's first in-depth public discussion of the work.
'Tony is an acclaimed writer. His short story collection Common People (2017) was shortlisted for both the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Indigenous Writers Prize in the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Ghost River (2015) won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Blood (2011) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
'Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio. He taught creative writing at Melbourne University for many years and was the inaugural Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow within the Moondani Balluk Centre at Victoria University.'
Source: Garret website.
-
Tony Birch : The White Girl
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 June 2019;'In critical appraisals of Tony Birch’s fiction, certain adjectives appear again and again. Of the prose: “spare”, “concise”, “uncluttered”; the characters “vivid” and rendered with “compassion”. Perhaps it is true that good novels, like Tolstoy’s happy families, are all alike, yet it could just as easily be true that critics, by and large, tend to repeat themselves. Or perhaps, as I suspect, there’s an element to Birch’s writing that makes him both readable and difficult to define.' (Introduction)
-
Shelf Reflection: Alice Bishop
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , July 2019; -
[Review] ‘The White Girl’
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 160 2019; (p. 58) 'One hundred and twenty-seven people. That was the census count of “the good white settlers” in the town where Odette Brown lives. Odette was not counted. None of her people were counted. They exist as shadows in a white world.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2021 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2020 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
- 2020 longlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year — Adult Fiction Book of the Year
- 2020 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2020 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Indigenous Writer's Prize
- 1960s