Praiseworthy

Judges' comments

Praiseworthy is a novel set in the fictional town of the same name, located somewhere in the north of the Australian continent. Trapped underneath a haze of physical and metaphysical pollution, and under the control of a maniacal albino mayor, the town is forced to come to terms with child suicide and its own victimisation and complicity in the tragedy. The story centres on the Steel family: father Cause Man and mother Dance, and their two sons Aboriginal Sovereignty and Tommyhawk, aged seventeen and eight respectively.

With narration at once light and dense, and terrible and beautiful, Alexis Wright stretches language to its limits. Epic in scope and told through complex imagery and allegory, Wright has crafted a rich exploration of colonisation, culture and sovereignty that speaks powerfully to past, present and future Australia.