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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'How long can you run from a lie, if that lie is what your life is founded on?
'In a near future all identity information is encoded in digital language. Nations know where everyone is, all the time. Not everyone agrees with this constant surveillance, and when the system is hijacked and shut down, all global borders are closed. The world is no longer connected, and there is no back-up plan to establish belonging, ownership or trade.
'Scarlet Friday, whose job is to correct historical record, is stranded on the wrong side of the globe. Befriended by a stranger, she grabs an old, faded history book and writes her own version over the top—a record of the Great Undoing on the run.
'But in deciding what truth to tell Scarlet must face her own history. How do we navigate identity when it is all a lie? She must reckon with her past before she can imagine her future.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Author's note:
For William Olive, my great grandfather,
I dream of us sitting together in eternal Country
beneath a spreading canopy.
I'll listen to you and you'll listen to me.
For Hannah-Hamster and her mum Negar.
I wish you the welcome of a Country that will embrace
and love you as you deserve.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Transfiguring the World : Sharlene Allsopp’s Impressive Début
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 462 2024; (p. 39)
— Review of The Great Undoing 2024 single work novel 'Over the past two decades, novelists such as Alexis Wright, Kim Scott, and Ellen van Neerven have produced a body of work that not only unflinchingly explores the reality of Indigenous experience, but in many cases revisions the boundaries of the novel altogether, dissolving the strictures of conventional realism to give shape to Indigenous notions of temporality and relationship with Country.'(Introduction)
-
‘Poetic’, ‘Fearless’, ‘A Creative Triumph’: The Best Australian Books Out in February
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 February 2024;
— Review of My Brilliant Sister 2024 single work novel ; We All Lived in Bondi Then 2024 selected work short story ; Politica 2024 single work novel ; The Great Undoing 2024 single work novel ; Monument 2024 selected work poetry prose ; The Pulling 2024 selected work autobiography essay ; All the Words We Know 2024 single work novel ; The Next Big Thing 2024 single work novel
-
‘Poetic’, ‘Fearless’, ‘A Creative Triumph’: The Best Australian Books Out in February
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 February 2024;
— Review of My Brilliant Sister 2024 single work novel ; We All Lived in Bondi Then 2024 selected work short story ; Politica 2024 single work novel ; The Great Undoing 2024 single work novel ; Monument 2024 selected work poetry prose ; The Pulling 2024 selected work autobiography essay ; All the Words We Know 2024 single work novel ; The Next Big Thing 2024 single work novel -
Transfiguring the World : Sharlene Allsopp’s Impressive Début
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 462 2024; (p. 39)
— Review of The Great Undoing 2024 single work novel 'Over the past two decades, novelists such as Alexis Wright, Kim Scott, and Ellen van Neerven have produced a body of work that not only unflinchingly explores the reality of Indigenous experience, but in many cases revisions the boundaries of the novel altogether, dissolving the strictures of conventional realism to give shape to Indigenous notions of temporality and relationship with Country.'(Introduction)
