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image of person or book cover 3203088999652683339.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Praiseworthy single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Praiseworthy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning Australian author Alexis Wright, in a limited edition hardcover.

'Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • AustLit's One Millionth Record !!!
  • Epigraph: I am not even dust. I am a dream... -Jorge Luis Borges

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Artarmon, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Giramondo Publishing , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 3203088999652683339.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 736p.
      Note/s:
      • Published April 2023
      ISBN: 9781922725745
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      New Directions ,
      2024 .
      image of person or book cover 7555748822108149058.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 736p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 6 February 2024.
      ISBN: 9780811238014

Works about this Work

Best of 2023 in Australian Reading Alex Gerrans , Rosie Ofori Ward , Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen , Imogen Dewey , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2024;

— Review of Shirley Ronnie Scott , 2023 single work novel ; Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel ; Search History Amy Taylor , 2023 single work novel ; Green Dot Madeleine Gray , 2023 single work novel ; Songs for the Dead and the Living Sara Saleh , 2023 single work novel ; Notes on Her Colour Jennifer Neal , 2023 single work novel ; Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens Shankari Chandran , 2022 single work novel ; Crossing the Line Nick McKenzie , 2023 single work autobiography ; Anam André Dao , 2023 single work novel
At 73, Australia’s Most Important Aboriginal Writer Is Making Her Mark Natasha Frost , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 4 February 2024;

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel

'Long before Alexis Wright was a towering figure in Australian letters, she took notes during community meetings in remote outback towns. Put to task by Aboriginal elders, her job was to take down their every word in longhand.' (Introduction)

From Alexis Wright to Tony Birch and Evelyn Araluen: Powerful Books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers Kate Evans , Claire Nichols , Sarah L'Estrange , Declan Fry , Cher Tan , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , January 2024;

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children Tony Birch , 2023 single work novel ; Firelight John Morrissey , 2023 selected work short story ; Harvest Lingo Lionel Fogarty , 2022 selected work poetry ; Close to the Subject : Selected Works Daniel Browning , 2023 selected work essay interview ; Dropbear Evelyn Araluen , 2021 selected work poetry essay ; The Yield Tara June Winch , 2019 single work novel
The 17 Best Books of 2023 Geordie Williamson , Justine Hyde , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22 January 2024;

— Review of The Sitter Angela O'Keeffe , 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; The Conversion Amanda Lohrey , 2023 single work novel ; The Vitals Tracy Sorensen , 2023 single work prose ; Right Story, Wrong Story : Adventures in Indigenous Thinking Tyson Yunkaporta , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children Tony Birch , 2023 single work novel ; The Art of Breaking Ice Rachael Mead , 2023 single work novel ; I'd Rather Not Robert Skinner , 2023 single work autobiography ; On Peter Carey : Writers on Writers Sarah Krasnostein , 2023 single work biography ; New Australian Fiction 2023 2023 anthology short story ; Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay
Appraising the Pandemic (Or, the Virus Time of Global Warming) Lynda Ng , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 82 no. 4 2023; (p. 189-194) Meanjin Online 2023;

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel
Enraged, Tragic and Hopeful: Alexis Wright’s New Novel Praiseworthy Explores Aboriginal Sovereignty in the Shadow of the Anthropocene Jane Gleeson-White , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 April 2023;

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel

Praiseworthy is Alexis Wright’s most formidable act of imaginative synthesis yet. It is simultaneously a hero’s journey for an age of global warming, a devastating story of young love caught between two laws, and an extended elegy and ode to Aboriginal law and sovereignty.' (Introduction)

The Question of the Future : Alexis Wright’s Expansive New Work Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 452 2023; (p. 37-38)

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel
'An ochre-coloured haze has gathered permanently over the town of Praiseworthy somewhere in the Gulf country. It is composed of dust, soot, broken butterfly wings, memories, and grief – and it isn’t going anywhere. Meanwhile, on the ground, thousands of feral donkeys are being corralled into the town cemetery by an Indigenous leader called Cause Man Steel. Most call this man Planet because he is always banging on about the collapse of the planet.' (Introduction) 
Alexis Wright Praiseworthy Claire G. Coleman , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 8-14 April 2023;

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel

'A few years ago I camped with my beloved in Jalmurark Campground, in Mangarayi and Yungman Country in the top end of the Northern Territory, near the property about which We of the Never Never was written by white woman Jeannie Gunn, who lived there for about a year. It was there that I was woken by the monstrous screams of feral donkeys, a noise that is used by sound designers all around the world whenever they need a terrifying, unearthly sound. And it was there I discovered for the first time that Australia has a feral donkey problem.' (Introduction)

The Vision Thing Rosemary Neill , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 April 2023; (p. 9)

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel
'Alexis Wright’s new novel sends up the ‘failed’ Northern Territory intervention. The trailblazing author talks politics, rejection and feral donkeys with ROSEMARY NEILL'
A Total Horizon of Indigenous Experience Geordie Williamson , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 April 2023; (p. 16)

— Review of Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel
y separately published work icon Alexis Wright’s Expansive New Work Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2023 26167007 2023 single work podcast

'In this week’s ABR Podcast, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth reviews Alexis Wright’s new novel, Praiseworthy. Expectations are high: after all, Wright is the only author to have won both the Miles Franklin Award and the Stella Prize. Praiseworthy, Hughes-d’Aeth argues, is a book unlike any other. Grounded in an Indigenous cosmology, combining realism with absurdism, it takes aim at its ‘one true enemy’: assimilation.'

y separately published work icon Alexis Wright in Conversation Ivor Indyk (interviewer), 2023 26349207 2023 single work podcast interview

'This episode features a live event recording taken of a conversation between Alexis Wright and Ivor Indyk, to celebrate the publication of Wright’s new novel, Praiseworthy.

'Alexis Wright is a remarkable writer, originally hailing from the from the Waanyi nation in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Her novel Carpentaria won the 2007 Miles Franklin award, and Wright was awarded the 2018 Stella Prize for her biography of “Tracker" Tilmouth. Praiseworthy is Wright’s fourth novel.' (Introduction)

Last amended 28 Sep 2023 16:47:42
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