Praiseworthy
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| International Dublin Literary Award | 2024 | Shortlist |
| Miles Franklin Literary Award | 2024 | Winner |
| James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction | 2024 | Shortlist |
| James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction | 2023 | Winner |
About This Book
Alexis Wright's fourth novel is an immense, formally explosive work set in an Aboriginal town in northern Australia as it faces climate catastrophe, government indifference, and the weight of colonial history. The central character, Cause Man Steel, is consumed by an obsessive quest to drive donkeys to the south, while the narrative voice fractures, multiplies, and soars into mythological registers. The novel won the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction in 2024 and the Stella Prize.
About the Author
Alexis Wright is an Aboriginal Australian novelist and essayist, a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. Born in 1950, she is one of Australia's most celebrated and formally radical novelists, known for fiction that combines oral tradition, myth, and postmodern experimentation to address the survival and continuity of First Nations cultures in Australia. Her novels include Plains of Promise (1997) and Carpentaria (2006), which won the Miles Franklin Award and is considered one of the landmark works of Australian literature. Read more →
