Heart of the Grass Tree is a brilliant achievement. A strange and compelling story that held me in thrall from the first page to the last.

ALEX MILLER

Heart of the Grass Tree is a story, richly told, of the landscape of Australian history – both emotional and physical – and the way we record these stories of place.

MARIE MATTESON, READINGS CARLTON

Exquisite storytelling from a vital, lilting new voice.

AUSTRALIAN WOMENS WEEKLY

A richly told story about people and place.

JEFF POPPLE, CANBERRA WEEKLY

I loved this exquisite novel. Molly Murn has created a gorgeously lyrical story of love, family and belonging set against the landscape and history of Kangaroo Island. Murn’s rendering of the island’s beauty borders on the sublime, and her portrayal of the acts of blood, violence, and forgiveness perpetrated there is profound in its deep understanding of human behaviour. The Heart of the Grass Tree announces Murn as a brilliant new voice in Australian fiction.

HANNAH KENT

From the opening descriptions of the purest strain of Ligurian bees on Kangaroo Island, Murn's novel promises a poetic narrative, relishing in sensuality and informed by historical research. And it delivers, But this exquisite dreaminess in describing both place and the emotionally intricate stories around Nell, her children and granddaughter are also contrasted with shocks of violence between blackfellas and whitefellas, reminiscent of Kate Grenville's The Secret River. It is a fitting way to write about Australia's violent history, from which South Australia is far exempt from. Murn confronts this uncomfortable history with honesty, sensitivity and skill, just as her novel's contemporary characters must confront their own personal histories.

MICHAEL X SAVVAS, ADELAIDE REVIEW

Murn’s novel is courageous in the more profound sense that she takes the reader into the ‘heart of the grass tree’ – and that heart means confronting historical injustices for the indigenous Ngarrindjeri people … I admire the novel not only for its courage, but also its success in mixing the dense and light, the poetic and dramatic, stories that are familiar with those requiring permission to tell.

GEOFFREY GATES

Every piece of this story, every person who enters its frame – even if only momentarily – contributes a piece of the picture. But the picture is bigger than any one individual. This is not the story of a person, or a family, or even a community. It is the story of an island, and islands existed long before we entered the scene, and will endure long after we are gone.

SALLY NIMOM, THE NEWTOWN REVIEW OF BOOKS

The real achievement of Heart of the Grass Tree is in Murn’s refusal to simplify the long and complex history of settlers on Kangaroo Island … Murn moves effortlessly from one era to the next, suggesting connections between characters in different times, and making the island come alive in salty, sandy, windswept prose.

MARGARET LLOYD, SA WEEKEND

A true gift of a novel from a truly impressive storyteller.

SIMON MCDONALD, READER, WRITER, BOOKSELLER