Heart Of The Grass Tree

*[URL not allowed] ‘The grass tree when it burns begins in the heart and burns outwards. The grass tree when it burns sheds its blackened skin and releases its seeds like an offering. The grass tree when it burns sounds like a she-oak moaning in the wind.’ These are the raw and vi......more

Lovely prose but structurally frustrating. I find that authors who write with this lyrical style struggle with narrative voice, and here it flattens characters until they are indistinguishable from each other. Still, the heart of the book is in its prose, so if you love this style and intergeneration......more

This is beyond doubt a beautiful book - both the outside and the writing. I liked the story - but for some inexplicable reason I couldn’t thoroughly enjoy it. Took me a while to get through.......more

Grass Trees and Bees Sand and Sea Art and Isolation Writing and Belonging In the Present and Past There's many a lyrical moment in this novel it's a lovely telling. I'll be looking out for more of Molly Murn.......more

Heart of the Grass Tree (Vintage Penguin Random House 2019), by Molly Murn, is a novel that combines the historical reimagining of early Australian history on Kangaroo Island in South Australia with a contemporary family saga. Written in beautiful prose that celebrates the natural environment and ev......more