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The Conversation
The Conversation
Jane Gleeson-White, Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney

Enraged, tragic and hopeful: Alexis Wright's new novel Praiseworthy explores Aboriginal sovereignty in the shadow of the anthropocene

Grass Yellow Butterfly, Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, Kuranda, Queensland. David Clode/Unsplash

Praiseworthy is Alexis Wright’s most formidable act of imaginative synthesis yet. It is simultaneously a hero’s journey for an age of global warming, a devastating story of young love caught between two laws, and an extended elegy and ode to Aboriginal law and sovereignty.

It is Wright’s most enraged, tragic and hopeful novel to date, with a magnificently upbeat denouement.

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