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The Yield

Tara June Winch

Why we're reading this: An amazing novel by an Indigenous Australian woman. Three different narrators tell the story in 3 differe…more
[close] An amazing novel by an Indigenous Australian woman. Three different narrators tell the story in 3 different ways. There's a contemporary narrative, a contemporary/historical indigenous language dictionary with explanations and a German missionary migrant Epistolary story.

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Jan 31, 2021 Claire rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-literature, fiction, around-the-world, historical-fiction, around-the-world-2021

Though it took a little while to get into and fall into the rhythm of this book, once I did and realised what it was doing, preserving a language and sharing a culture through it, while telling the story of one who returns to the culture having been separated from it through travel (and having been separated from it through education), I thought it was brilliant.

The story is narrated through three voices, in three styles, across three time periods.

The first person narrative is given to Albert (P Though it took a little while to get into and fall into the rhythm of this book, once I did and realised what it was doing, preserving a language and sharing a culture through it, while telling the story of one who returns to the culture having been separated from it through travel (and having been separated from it through education), I thought it was brilliant.

The story is narrated through three voices, in three styles, across three time periods.

The first person narrative is given to Albert (Poppy) the grandfather, he is no longer living when we read his granddaughter August's account of her return from England to Australia, he is the reason she returns, for his funeral. His words are a casual account of descriptions of words in his indigenous language, like a dictionary, except that apart from the word in bold, his descriptions of the meanings are like stories or anecdotes, to ensure we understand the meaning, they are more than mere words, they preserve a culture, they are evidence of a civilisation.

The second person narrative is the present day account of August's return, of her discovery that her grandmother is being forced to leave the family property because of a mining company and the way it has been presented to them, as if they had no claim to that land or buildings. Her grandmother Elsie isn't prepared to fight, but August becomes aware of her grandfather's project and of what is required to both save the land and reinstate their existence. It is a time of reckoning as she allows events of the past to rise and rather than run from them, can make amends.

The third aspect, is a serialisation of letters from a British/German Reverend who lived in the area in the early 1900's and wrote an account of his attempt to build a mission and recorded the treatment of people, the struggles, the behaviours, the results, the small successes, the failures.

The entire novel is a huge endeavour, encompassing, as it does, this one language of the hundreds that existed and have either become extinct, or are at threat of becoming so.

The way the words and language create a bridge of understanding of a way of life and thinking is a celebration and the thought of one man, spending his latter years in pursuit of this, of sharing all that he knew, so he could pass it on, in the way of the coloniser, using the written word and not the oral stories of the past, that risk dying out is remarkable and uplifting.

I love that stories like this are being written, helping to preserve a much wronged culture and people. ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Aug 26, 2019 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cultural-australia, australian-women-writers, act-library, australian-author, australian-fiction, own, favourites, 2019-release-aussie-author, historical-fiction, best-of-2019

This is one of the most originally structured novels I've read this year. In fact, I've never read a novel with this form of structure.
There are three forms of narration: The voice of August told in a direct narration. August is a modern, young Indigenous woman returning home to her grandfather's funeral after an extended absence in The UK. Still struggling with the lose of her sister as a child; The voice of her Grandfather, Poppy Albert, told in a dictionary of Aboriginal Wiradjuri language. ...more

11 likes · Like · see review