Dimensions
142 x 200 x 19mm
A tough, uncompromising novel about the difficult love between a black woman and a white man.
When 'Coonardoo' was first published in 1929 it was greeted with considerable controversy. It tells the story of Coonardoo, a young Aboriginal woman who is trained from childhood to be the housekeeper at Wytaliba station and, as such, is destined to look after its owner, Hugh Watt.
The love between Coonardoo and Hugh, which so shocked the audience of 1929, is never acknowledged and so, degraded and twisted in on itself, destroys not only Coonardoo, but also a community that was once peaceful.
Introduced by Drusilla Modjeska, this frank and daring novel set on the edge of the desert still raises difficult questions about the history of contact between black and white, and its representation in Australian writing.
