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The Swan Book Paperback – 1 January 2015

by Alexis Wright (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 79 ratings
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The new novel by Alexis Wright, whose previous novel Carpentaria won the Miles Franklin Award and four other major prizes including the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award. The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute teenager called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans driven from other parts of the country, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city. The Swan Book has all the qualities which made Wright's previous novel, Carpentaria, a prize-winning best-seller. It offers an intimate awareness of the realities facing Aboriginal people; the wild energy and humour in her writing finds hope in the bleakest situations; and the remarkable combination of storytelling elements, drawn from myth and legend and fairy tale.

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  1. Print length
    252 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Giramondo Publishing
  4. Publication date
    1 January 2015
  5. ISBN-10
    1922146838
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1922146830
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Giramondo Publishing (1 January 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1922146838
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1922146830
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 79 ratings

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Alexis Wright

Alexis Wright

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3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
79 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

Zach Mackay
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing story, by an accomplished and heartfelt storyteller
Reviewed in Australia on 25 April 2024
Verified Purchase
I love The Swan Book. This is the second time I’ve read it, and it was even better than the first. Alexis Wright is an incredible author; I love Carpentaria too. I couldn’t recommend this more highly.
One person found this helpful
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MisterHobgoblin
4.0 out of 5 stars Metaphors within metaphors
Reviewed in Australia on 15 November 2013
The Swan Book is a difficult read. There are metaphors within metaphors, literary references referring back to various cultures and ages.

Broadly, The Swan Book follows the life of an Aboriginal girl, Oblivia Ethyl(ene) Oblivion. Oblivia is rescued as a child from a hollow treetrunk and grows up living in the hull of a ship in a semi-dried lake, being raised by a white woman, Bella Donna. The community seems to be a mixture of exiled aborigines, deemed troublesome by the authorities, and migrants fleeing the effects of climate change around the world. One day, swans come to the lake. The swans seem to be a metaphor for different aboriginal nations, and Oblivia seems to be a cipher for aboriginal consciousness. She is distant from her community and spends much of her time in a dream-like state.

Then, one day, the lake is visited by Warren Finch, an aboriginal politician who has become vice president of Australia. Finch appears to be revered by mainstream society as the acceptable, approachable face of aboriginal culture. The trouble is, Oblivia and the swans can't recognise him at all. Finch claims Oblivia as his promised wife and takes her away to his home in the city where she spends half her time playing the role of Australia's first lady, and half her time effectively held prisoner by Finch's loyal man-servant Machine.

The book considers questions of Aboriginal identity, assimilation and self government. Some of the conclusions seem to be pretty bleak; a people brought up on welfare handouts who are unwilling to engage with the mainstream; yet who have been robbed of the skills, culture and freedom to engage in real self-determination. There are close parallels between The Swan Book and Irish legend. Indeed, the text references the Children of Lir - children who were turned into swans and condemned to stay that way for 900 years - as a story passed to Oblivia by Bella Donna. Opening this parallel to Irish legend opens the way to seeing successive waves of settlers on the land. Hence, if the swans are the Tuatha Dé Danann, Oblivia and her people would be the Fir Bolg, and before them was the origin of the lake under the Nemedians.

Alexis Wright doesn't seem to offer any way forward (and why should she?), but if the Irish legend analogy is followed through, we would remember that the Tuatha Dé Danann were displaced by the final wave of invaders, the Milesians. Is this an indication that the aboriginals are fighting a doomed battle for survival?

The political messages are made more powerful for their cloaking in legend and analogy. The reader has to reach his or her own conclusions, and perhaps each reader will reach different conclusions. This reader, as a relatively recent European migrant to Australia, may impose a different set of cultural values and expectations on the text to those readers who pick up on other textual references. Because, for all the swans, there are other birds. We have brolgas, we have currawongs, we have mynahs and we have Warren Finch. In many of the scenes, the birds have at least equal status to the people. This is certainly not a book that celebrates man's achievements and where cities and aeroplanes and lorries are mentioned, they are depicted very much as pollutants that are small blemishes to a much bigger, older and wiser land.

The heavy metaphor, use of dream sequences, absurdity and surreality make this a difficult book. The reader feels as though he or she is seeing just a small part of the full depth of this work. And it leaves a sense of unease with the accepted values and direction of society. But it is worth persevering with, even if much of the pleasure comes from having reached the end rather than the process of reaching it.
2 people found this helpful
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Rod Baxter
3.0 out of 5 stars Different
Reviewed in Australia on 14 August 2015
Verified Purchase
This story is a bit different from what I w poo I'd usually read. Also kinda different from what I expected. It is a very interesting look at a possible post climate change futuristic look at life in Australia for an indigenous girl who has a connection to the fauna in general and swans in particular.
I will be honest, I am not sure what to make of this story. I think in part it was a futuristic Dream Time story. Also a bit political satire. There are some elements of cautionary tale as well.
2 people found this helpful
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Michelle Falzon
1.0 out of 5 stars I really wanted to love this book
Reviewed in Australia on 20 April 2015
Verified Purchase
I really wanted to love this book. It is an important topic from a writer whose previous work has been magnificent. But, I hate to say it, I found the writing overly pretentious and disjointed. I suspended judgement for the first 30% of the book, thinking surely all would be revealed and things would start to click. But this is a book I did not enjoy. No expectant looking forward to stealing a few minutes to read this one. Each minute I spent on it was a trial and I really had to force myself to continue with it. This review is so hard for me to write, because I think the story gives us a narrative we need more of in this country and there were aspects of the characters that were so interesting. But the writing style was so impenetrable, contrived and self-conscious, I felt locked out of the heart of this novel. A heart I really wanted, and was willing, to explore. Maybe I just didn't get it. I see others have loved it. I am an experienced reader of literary fiction and have an appreciation and respect for a wide range of writing styles, but this one just did not reach me.
3 people found this helpful
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Kay Casey
2.0 out of 5 stars A book that I will forever remember
Reviewed in Australia on 19 October 2015
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Totally amazing. Certainly not an easy read, but well worth persevering. Quarter way through I was not liking it ... I read it to the end and finished up loving it.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amazon Kunde
2.0 out of 5 stars Gute Qualität, fragwürdige Storyline
Reviewed in Germany on 27 October 2019
Verified Purchase
Zustand des Buches war top. Die Geschichte an sich hat mich leider nicht gepackt.
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The Middle Shelf
5.0 out of 5 stars Politically and ecologically engaged Aboriginal Australian novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2018
Verified Purchase
Oblivia's life is defined by a traumatic event that she refuses to remember: she was gang raped as a young girl and escaped. She found refuge in the hollow of a tree where she remained until an old white woman, Bella Donna, found her and took her in. They both live in an internment camp in Australia, where Aboriginals are kept around a swamp filled with black swans and rusty hulls of old warships.

The Swan Book is by more way than one a novel that blur the genres. It is also something quite unique and if you are the right reader for it, this politically and ecologically engaged fantasy novel from Australia set in the near future will be a delight to read. It is a unique novel and without a shadow of a doubt a major work of Australian literature and of speculative fiction that I'd recommend to any reader who isn't afraid of something very different and very literary.
One person found this helpful
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Qyntara
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing and powerful book
Reviewed in the United States on 25 November 2014
Verified Purchase
An amazing and powerful book. The beginning is quite a difficult read, both intellectually and emotionally. The author raises a lot of important questions even as she, by her use of style and metaphores, indicates these are difficult to answer.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars The quality of the book is good, the hardcover is sturdy
Reviewed in Canada on 3 February 2017
Verified Purchase
The quality of the book is good, the hardcover is sturdy, but very expensive for a novel that isn't even a new release, and I didn't enjoy the content
One person found this helpful
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MisterHobgoblin
4.0 out of 5 stars Metaphors within metaphors
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 October 2013
Verified Purchase
The Swan Book is a difficult read. There are metaphors within metaphors, literary references referring back to various cultures and ages.

Broadly, The Swan Book follows the life of an Aboriginal girl, Oblivia Ethyl(ene) Oblivion. Oblivia is rescued as a child from a hollow treetrunk and grows up living in the hull of a ship in a semi-dried lake, being raised by a white woman, Bella Donna. The community seems to be a mixture of exiled aborigines, deemed troublesome by the authorities, and migrants fleeing the effects of climate change around the world. One day, swans come to the lake. The swans seem to be a metaphor for different aboriginal nations, and Oblivia seems to be a cipher for aboriginal consciousness. She is distant from her community and spends much of her time in a dream-like state.

Then, one day, the lake is visited by Warren Finch, an aboriginal politician who has become vice president of Australia. Finch appears to be revered by mainstream society as the acceptable, approachable face of aboriginal culture. The trouble is, Oblivia and the swans can't recognise him at all. Finch claims Oblivia as his promised wife and takes her away to his home in the city where she spends half her time playing the role of Australia's first lady, and half her time effectively held prisoner by Finch's loyal man-servant Machine.

The book considers questions of Aboriginal identity, assimilation and self government. Some of the conclusions seem to be pretty bleak; a people brought up on welfare handouts who are unwilling to engage with the mainstream; yet who have been robbed of the skills, culture and freedom to engage in real self-determination. There are close parallels between The Swan Book and Irish legend. Indeed, the text references the Children of Lir - children who were turned into swans and condemned to stay that way for 900 years - as a story passed to Oblivia by Bella Donna. Opening this parallel to Irish legend opens the way to seeing successive waves of settlers on the land. Hence, if the swans are the Tuatha Dé Danann, Oblivia and her people would be the Fir Bolg, and before them was the origin of the lake under the Nemedians.

Alexis Wright doesn't seem to offer any way forward (and why should she?), but if the Irish legend analogy is followed through, we would remember that the Tuatha Dé Danann were displaced by the final wave of invaders, the Milesians. Is this an indication that the aboriginals are fighting a doomed battle for survival?

The political messages are made more powerful for their cloaking in legend and analogy. The reader has to reach his or her own conclusions, and perhaps each reader will reach different conclusions. This reader, as a relatively recent European migrant to Australia, may impose a different set of cultural values and expectations on the text to those readers who pick up on other textual references. Because, for all the swans, there are other birds. We have brolgas, we have currawongs, we have mynahs and we have Warren Finch. In many of the scenes, the birds have at least equal status to the people. This is certainly not a book that celebrates man's achievements and where cities and aeroplanes and lorries are mentioned, they are depicted very much as pollutants that are small blemishes to a much bigger, older and wiser land.

The heavy metaphor, use of dream sequences, absurdity and surreality make this a difficult book. The reader feels as though he or she is seeing just a small part of the full depth of this work. And it leaves a sense of unease with the accepted values and direction of society. But it is worth persevering with, even if much of the pleasure comes from having reached the end rather than the process of reaching it.
5 people found this helpful
 Report