The Yield

Tara June Winch

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HAMISH HAMILTON
03 July 2019

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Miles Franklin Literary Award; Prime Minister's Prizes and Awards

WINNER • MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020 • PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARDS 2020

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- With a braiding of three narratives, Winch's story encircles the indigenous experience across differing time periods, and honours a First Nations language. The current voice is that of August Gondiwindi, a Wiradjuri woman returning home from abroad to face the family and town she left behind, amidst domestic and social pressures. Then there is the voice of the well-read grandfather Albert, whose personal project to record his people's tongue also sheds light on the mystery of the childhood disappearance of August's sister. The third voice is from earlier colonial times via a Lutheran missionary. Overall, the story is of many sadnesses held out by determination to survive and to thrive - a refusal to yield. Craig Kirchner

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The yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. In the language of the Wiradjuri, yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things - baayanha.

Knowing he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi puts pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. He is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind.

August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for 10 years when she learns of her grandfather's death. She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends, she endeavours to save their land - a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river.

Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity.

By: Tara June Winch
Imprint: HAMISH HAMILTON
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 157mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 502g
ISBN: 9780143785750
ISBN 10: 0143785753
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 03 July 2019
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri author, born in Australia in 1983 and based in France. Her first novel, Swallow the Air became a critically acclaimed debut. She was named the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, and has won numerous literary awards for Swallow the Air. A 10th Anniversary edition was published in 2016. In 2008, Tara was mentored by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative. Her second book, the story collection After the Carnage was published in 2016. After the Carnage was longlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction, shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier's Christina Stead prize for Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for a collection. She wrote the Indigenous dance documentary, Carriberrie, which screened at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and is touring internationally.