'Taboo seizes and will not release.' Robert Macfarlane
One may as well begin, 'Once upon a time...' Except this is no fairytale.
Kim Scott's powerfully charged, award-winning novel thrusts a young woman centre-stage in a vicious drama that has been playing in her family for generations - an act of extraordinary violence, and an act of extraordinary reconciliation, separated by two hundred years.
WINNER VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS 2019
WINNER NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS 2018
WINNER QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS 2018
FINALIST COLIN RODERICK LITERARY AWARD 2018
FINALIST MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD 2018
SHORTLISTED FOR PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARDS 2018
LONGLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018
LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018
PRAISE FOR TABOO
'Remarkable' The Australian
'An extraordinary novel' Robert Macfarlane
'A master storyteller at the top of his game' Guardian
'One of the most thoughtful, exciting and powerful storytellers of this continent today' Sydney Review of Books
'Stunning' Saturday Paper
'Undaunted and daring as ever' Sydney Morning Herald
Awards
Winner for NSW Premier's Literary Awards Book of the Year 2018.
Winner for NSW Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers' Prize 2018.
Short-listed for Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2018.
Long-listed for Indie Book Awards Fiction 2018.
Long-listed for ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2018.
Short-listed for Miles Franklin Literary Award 2018.
Short-listed for The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award 2018.
Short-listed for Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2019.
Long-listed for Dublin Literary Award 2019.
Short-listed for Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction 2018.
Author Information
Kim Scott is a multi-award winning novelist.
Benang (1999) was the first novel by an Indigenous writer to win the Miles Franklin Award and
That Deadman Dance (2010) also won Australia's premier literary prize, among many others. Proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar, Kim is founder and chair of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Story Project (www.wirlomin.com.au), which has published a number of bilingual picture books.
A Companion to the Works of Kim Scott (Camden House, 2016) deals with aspects of his career in education and literature. He received an Australian Centenary Medal and was 2012 West Australian of the Year. Kim is currently Professor of Writing in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University.
