An extraordinary new literary novel from the award-winning author of Dog Boy and The Last Garden

An extraordinary new literary novel from the award-winning author of Dog Boy and The Last Garden. 'The long-awaited new novel from one of our finest writers.' The Australian Gem and Will grow up on a farm above the chasm and pool known as the Minstrels, a site where both are broken, each by the other. One will disappear. One will, eventually, be transformed. Through her encounters with people and through art, land and language, Gem is remade while the world outside changes and time runs out. This long-awaited new novel from one of our finest writers is a sweeping epic set in literal and figurative blight in a fictional Australian geography; a work of self, time and the very end of something. Wild, mythic and potent, The Minstrels is an apocalyptic redemption fable that weaves the history and probable fate of the world into the life of one woman. 'Beautiful....a startlingly original portrait of familial love and grief.' Books+Publishing

Details

ISBN13: 9781923058781
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 368
Edition:
Publication Date: 03 Mar 2026
Publisher: Text Publishing
Publication City, Country: Melbourne, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.4(L)x2.6(W)453
Weight (gm): 453

Author Biography

Eva Hornung, formerly published as Eva Sallis, is an award-winning writer of literary fiction and criticism- her first novel, Hiam, won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1997 and the Nita May Dobbie Award in 1999. Her novel The Marsh Birds won the Asher Literary Award 2005 and was shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year 2005, NSW Premier's Literary Award and Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Hornung's acclaimed Dog Boy was shortlisted for numerous prizes and won the Prime Minister's Literary Award in 2010. Her most recently published book, The Last Garden, won the SA Premier's Prize for Literature in 2018. She lives in rural South Australia.

Reviews

‘An intriguing, powerful novel.’ * Age *
‘A masterpiece.’ * Guardian *
'The long-awaited new novel from one of our finest writers.’ * Australian *
‘Provocative and ambitious.’ * Saturday Paper *
'Utterly gripping...a compelling read.’ * Conversation *
‘Beautiful….a startlingly original portrait of familial love and grief.’ * Books+Publishing *
‘This novel had such a tender beauty in so many moments, that even with the devastation that overshadows the story, the overriding feeling was joy.’ * Readings *
‘Asserts the power and possibility of remaking identity in the face of changes which impose adaptation and acceptance.’ * ANZ Lit Lovers *
‘Hornung has seeded the narrative with complicated issues that bloom, in her characteristically fertile prose, into ambivalent flower.' * Age *
‘An epic...the beauty and playfulness of the prose dazzles, and Gem is an extraordinary creation.’ * Guardian *
'important, engaging, and intimate. The writing is at times heartbreaking, at times really funny. A joy to read and re-read.' ‚òÖ‚òÖ‚òÖ‚òÖ‚òÖ * Good Reading *