AustLit

'Thousands of years ago, the People lived and worshipped their gods in the rainforests of the Indonesian archipelago. Then the Newcomers began to come from the north and the People are forced to move south ... and keep relocating again and again. They must trust those of their kind with whom they used to do battle; they must learn how to cross a river; they must forget their old ways and forge new ideas. Fern is their shaman, and above all her spirit must be forged anew or she and her people will die - not from hunger or starvation or war, but from the loss of their gods and the dying of their spirit ... the very heart of their world. And in contemporary Australia, another Fern must choose between the new world and the old ... and the visions of an ancient shaman may guide her path in the present.' (Source: publisher's website.)