A Short History of Longans

Overview

‘They said you were a murdering bushranger.’It’s the winter of 2049 and Daniel is elderly and long isolated. After yet another devastating storm, this time destroying his beloved longan tree, he finds his fragile peace threatened by a growing friendship with a widowed neighbour and the appearance of a young reporter digging into a shameful event buried deep in his past.Across the autumn of 2000, the summer of 1949 and the restless springs of the mid-nineteenth century, the tangled roots of Daniel’s family tree unfurl – to the moment an Irish orphan finds her fate entwined with that of a Chinese bushranger.Intriguing and beautifully written, this dazzling novel spanning centuries and generations unravels the secrets and memories of one Irish-Chinese family to explore what it means to belong – to place, to ancestors, to ourselves.

Author Biography

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain, which won the Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award and the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her second novel, Sunbirds, was set in wartime Java during World War II and was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award. Her debut novella, The Fish Girl, was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies and lives in Brisbane.