Praiseworthy
“An astonishing feat of storytelling and sovereign imagination… Praiseworthy redraws the map of Australian literature and expands the possibilities of fiction.”
Giramondo, 2023
The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author Alexis Wright.
Praiseworthy is an epic set in the north of Australia, told with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis Wright has become renowned. In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. This is a novel which pushes allegory and language to its limits, a cry of outrage against oppression and disadvantage, and a fable for the end of days.
WINNER: Miles Franklin Literary Award 2024
WINNER: The Stella Prize 2024
WINNER: The James Tait Black Prize – Fiction 2024
WINNER: University of Queensland Fiction Book Award, Queensland Literary Awards 2023
WINNER: Voss Literary Prize 2024
WINNER: ALS Gold Medal 2024
WINNER: Kate Challis RAKA Award 2026
SHORTLISTED: The Dublin Literary Award 2024
SHORTLISTED: NSW Premier’s Literary Award – People’s Choice Award 2024
SHORTLISTED: NSW Premier’s Literary Award – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction 2024
SHORTLISTED: NSW Premier’s Literary Award – Indigenous Writers’ Prize 2024
SHORTLISTED: Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance, Queensland Literary Awards 2023
SHORTLISTED: Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award 2024
LONGLISTED: The Climate Fiction Prize 2025
About the Author
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. She is the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria, The Swan Book, and, most recently, Praiseworthy. Her works of non-fiction include Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory; and Tracker, the award-winning collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth. Wright’s books have been published widely overseas, and have won many numerous literary awards. She is distinguished for winning the Miles Franklin and the Stella Prize twice.