Taboo

In the present, Dan Horton, an elderly farmer in the south-west of Western Australia, asks a group of Noongar people onto his land, to the spot where generations ago his forebears massacred their ancestors in revenge for the killing of a settler who had taken an Aboriginal woman. He hopes the visit, and a planned peace park, will fulfil his dead wife's wishes and ease the guilt that clings to the farm. The visitors include Tilly, a young woman of mixed descent who spent a short time in Dan's care as an infant, and Gerald, newly released from jail. Walking through the forbidden country, the group begins to reclaim language, law and kinship, even as old injuries threaten to break open again.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia

First published

2017

Author's age

60 when first published

ISBN

9781925483741 (Pan Macmillan Australia, Australia)

9781618731692 (Small Beer Press, United States)

9781760784898 (Pan Macmillan Australia, Australia)