I struggled to understand what this novel was trying to tell me. There was a lot of nice prose hidden in chunks of text that just left me confused more than anything. 

I don’t understand this book. 
I gave up on it halfway a few years ago and decided to try again. The blurb tells you essentially exactly what happens in the story, but I don’t feel like I gained much extra from actually reading the whole book, except some beautiful poetic descriptions of a hot world, getting hotter and more desperate. 
It’s pretty weird. 

Alexis Wright’s 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘄𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸, is a devastating, politically and ecologically engaged, novel of climate change in a future where humans have pushed mother earth to her breaking point.

“𝙈𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚? 𝙃𝙖𝙝!…𝙋𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙙 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚, 𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙯𝙖𝙧𝙙. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨, 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙬 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙.” 

Wright’s third novel begins in her ancestral country, the grass plains of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Its heartbreaking but also teaming with humor and political satire. It is literal but at the same time metaphoric.  It is grounded in reality but also steeped in folklore and myth. 

“𝙐𝙥𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙣𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙪𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙡’𝙨 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚. 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙥 𝙨𝙠𝙮. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙪𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙨 𝙖 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙦𝙪𝙞 𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙬 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.”

This virus, this ‘𝙣𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙜𝙞𝙖 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨’ is at the heart of the novel.  It’s a love story about an indigenous girl, her love for the northern skies, and her journey to control own (indigenous) mind and by extension her(indigenous) land.  It’s a novel about imagination and the ability of human stories to propagate across space and time. 

Oblivion Ethyl(ene) (aka Oblivia), a mute, indigenous, teenage girl, is the central character of this novel.  After a group of local young men high on gas fumes gang raped Oblivia, she fled to a hollowed tree. There she is discovered by an old, white woman named Bella Donna who is herself a climate refugee from the north.