In this brilliant, wide-ranging novel, Alexis Wright evokes city and outback, deepening our understanding of human ambition and failure, and making the timeless heart and soul of this country pulsate on the page.

In the 1950s Gulf Country of Queensland's far North, black and white cultures collide in a thousand ways as Aboriginal spirituality clashes with the complex brutality of colonisation at St Dominic's Mission. When Ivy Koopundi and her mother arrive at the Mission, they are immediately separated and Ivy's life changes irrevocably.

Years later, Mary, a young woman who is working for a city-based Aboriginal Coalition, visits the old Mission and learns of her mother's and grandmother's suffering there. Mary's return reignites community anxieties, leading the Council of Elders to again turn to their spirit world.

This stunning novel, from the only writer to win both the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize, showcases Alexis Wright's distinctive and far-reaching talents.