Dirrayawadha

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

Shortlisted for the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards, The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award

From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray comes another groundbreaking historical novel about resistance, resilience and love during the frontier wars.

Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. She remembers the day they raised a piece of cloth and renamed her homeland 'Bathurst'. Now she lives at a placed called Cloverdale and works for the Nugents - a kind family, but nothing like her own.

Her brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. Miinaa hopes the violence will not come to Cloverdale.

When Irish convict Daniel O'Dwyer arrives at the settlement, Miinaa's life is transformed again. The pair are magnetically drawn to each other and begin meeting at the bila in secret. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Can their love survive their differences and the turmoil that threatens to destroy everything around them?

Anita Heiss is breathing new life into the Australian historical epic. Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) shows the resistance leader Windradyne as the remarkable figure he was and surrounds him with fascinating figures otherwise lost to history. With irresistible imagination and verve, as well as a deep desire for truth telling, Anita Heiss's novels are re-peopling our past.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781761631375
Published: November 2025

Number of pages: 352
Width: 128 mm
Height: 198 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia