STORYLAND

Catherine McKinnon 4th Estate, $28

Traversing four centuries with five storylines,

Storyland is ambitious, to say the least. The glue holding the plots together is the common location, NSW’s Lake Illawarra. A journey through space and time, it begins in 1796, when cabin boy Will Martin goes exploring with Matthew Flinders and George Bass. In 1822, a desperate ex-convict shoots an Indigenous woman for stealing corn. Then, almost 80 years later, a family is falsely accused of a crime. A century on, a rafting adventure ends in violence. Finally, in 2033, Nada’s world is destroyed by a cyclone. The book examines who we are, our historic and blood ties and our connection to the land. It just might be the real story of Australia.