The White Girl

2021 Longlist

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. Raising her granddaughter Sissy on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing Aboriginal children from their communities. When the menacing Sergeant Lowe arrives in town, determined to fully enforce the law, any freedom that Odette and Sissy enjoy comes under grave threat. Odette must make an impossible choice to protect her family.

About the Author

Tony Birch is the author of three novels: the bestselling The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Prize; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2012. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. In 2021 he will release two new books, a poetry collection, Whisper Songs, and a new short story collection, Dark as Last Night. Tony Birch is also an activist, historian and essayist.

Librarian’s Comments

The White Girl is part literary fiction, part adventure story set in 1960s Australia where Odette Brown is spurred into action to protect her granddaughter, Sissy, from welfare authorities seeking to remove Aboriginal children from their families. A tense, beautiful, understated novel, this is a moving account of a country on the eve of a defining referendum on Indigenous rights, as well as a personal love story between an old woman and her beloved granddaughter. State Library of Queensland, Australia