Publisher's synopsis
With an introduction from UQP’s First Nations Classics series editor Yasmin Smith, Swallow the Air is the much-loved debut of 2020 Miles Franklin Award-winner Tara June Winch.
When May’s mother dies suddenly, she and her brother Billy are taken in by Aunty. However, their loss leaves them both searching for their place in a world that doesn’t seem to want them. While Billy takes his own destructive path, May sets out to find her father and her Aboriginal identity. Her journey leads her from the Australian east coast to the far north, but it is the people she meets, not the destinations, that teach her what it is to belong. Swallow the Air is an unforgettable story of living in a torn world and finding the thread to help sew it back together.
Awards
- Winner, 2007 Kibble Literary Awards – Nita May Dobbie Award
- Winner, 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards – UTS Award for New Writing
- Winner, 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards – Prize for Indigenous Writing
- Winner, 2004 Queensland Literary Awards – Unpublished Indigenous Writer: David Unaipon Award
- Shortlisted, 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) – Australian Newcomer of the Year
- Shortlisted, 2006 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards – Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award
- Shortlisted, 2006 The Age Book of the Year Award – Fiction Prize
- Highly Commended, 2006 The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards – FAW Christina Stead Award
- Nominated, 2006 Deadly Sounds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards – Outstanding Achievement in Literature
