Edenglassie (novel)

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Edenglassie is a 2023 novel by Australian author Melissa Lucashenko. It is set in Queensland during two times: a historical period around 1859, when convicts had stopped being transported and Queensland was becoming its own colony, and the present day. In the 21st century, Granny Eddie falls and ends up in hospital, then speaks to a white journalist, sharing the true story of the land as told by the Old People, challenging the standard history.

The book uses a river motif and shows how the past, present, and future are connected through Aboriginal storytelling, knowledge, and Country. Critics praised it as ambitious and powerful. Jeanine Leane described it as an arc with ripples like a river that moves from past to future. Michael Jongen called it an ambitious, astounding read.

Publication details: Published in Australia by University of Queensland Press on 3 October 2023; 320 pages. ISBN 9780702266126. It won the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. It was reprinted by UQP in 2024. It follows Lucashenko's Too Much Lip.