The White Girl is a black and white story about Australian colonialism's malevolent legacies, and the courage, strength, and dignity of Indigenous resistance. It's a story about strong women, with whom Birch's life has been blessed. It is also a profound allegory of good and evil, and a deep exploration of human interaction, black and white, alternately beautiful and tender, cruel and unsettling. — The Guardian
"Birch is a writer with a profound gift for language and human insight. He writers with razor's edge emotional clarity and empathy about people and place—especially on those Australian margins, rural and urban. The White Girl showcases his gift." — The Guardian
"The way Birch describes the day-to-day existence of his characters, so sweetly rendered, gives them a universal quality. The story is a truth even while the specifics of this novel are fiction, and this tale is a revelation of small details." — Sydney Morning Herald
"[Tony Birch brings] a lifetime of knowledge about Australian history, social policy, and cultural identity to this book, a deceptively simple story about family love that is rich in humanity and purpose, and hope. The White Girl is worth your time and will reward you over and over again." — Australian Book Review
"[The White Girl] explores the legacy and ongoing fallout of the Stolen Generation, and also touches on matters that are still pertinent and ongoing: the vulnerability of Indigenous women to sexual predation specifically, but on a larger scale, generational violence and toxic masculinity." — The Big Issue (Australia)
"Birch's stories have always exuded a warm, lived-in feel, even in their bleakest moments, and in The White Girl his style reaches an apotheosis: there is a profound and rare clarity in the prose, and the pacing is excellent." — The Saturday Paper
"The White Girl is approachable and fiercely readable, its linguistic and cultural power cloaked in deceptively simple language." — Sydney Review of Books
Tony Birch is a local treasure. — Jacinta Parsons
The White Girl is a tense and gripping read...an important window into a shameful period of Australia's very recent history, and a wonderful celebration of strong Indigenous women. It's a book that I hugged to my chest after reading the final page. — Claire Nichols, The Book Show
Tony Birch is one of those writers who has mastered the art of storytelling... His latest novel The White Girl is no different—in fact the characters he creates and the plotlines he weaves are almost hyperreal—you know people like Odette Brown and her grandbaby Sissy. — Daniel Browning
The White Girl is not given to sentimentality; instead it is a celebration of Aboriginal resilience and kinship in response to trauma. — Arts Review
“With a brisk pace and lush prose, Birch breathes life into Odette’s wrenching and courageous search for her daughter and the hope of a better life for Sissy. Readers will feel the pull of this harrowing story.” — Publishers Weekly
“An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Award-winning Indigenous writer and activist Birch has created a poignant novel that keenly demonstrates how the strength of family bonds can shatter societal biases." — Booklist
“Set in the 1960’s in the midst of the government’s racist Stolen Generation policy, The White Girl remixes the typical genre expectations of historical fiction and noir to spin a unique and profound tale all its own.” — The Chicago Review of Books
“Birch draws from his Indigenous background to craft a story that's both heartbreaking and hopeful, and focuses on the strength that comes from a family's love.” — Buzzfeed
“a carefully crafted work of fiction that makes good writing seem easy.” — New York Journal of Books
"Birch illustrates how Australia’s policies dehumanized not only the Indigenous people they sought to control—often by taking children from their families and placing them in white mission schools—but also the white people who were complicit in enforcing them." — The New Yorker
The White Girl is a tense and gripping read...an important window into a shameful period of Australia's very recent history, and a wonderful celebration of strong Indigenous women. It's a book that I hugged to my chest after reading the final page.
"Birch's stories have always exuded a warm, lived-in feel, even in their bleakest moments, and in The White Girl his style reaches an apotheosis: there is a profound and rare clarity in the prose, and the pacing is excellent."
"The way Birch describes the day-to-day existence of his characters, so sweetly rendered, gives them a universal quality. The story is a truth even while the specifics of this novel are fiction, and this tale is a revelation of small details."
Tony Birch is a local treasure.
"The White Girl is approachable and fiercely readable, its linguistic and cultural power cloaked in deceptively simple language."
Tony Birch is one of those writers who has mastered the art of storytelling... His latest novel The White Girl is no different—in fact the characters he creates and the plotlines he weaves are almost hyperreal—you know people like Odette Brown and her grandbaby Sissy.
"[The White Girl] explores the legacy and ongoing fallout of the Stolen Generation, and also touches on matters that are still pertinent and ongoing: the vulnerability of Indigenous women to sexual predation specifically, but on a larger scale, generational violence and toxic masculinity."
The Big Issue (Australia)
The White Girl is a black and white story about Australian colonialism's malevolent legacies, and the courage, strength, and dignity of Indigenous resistance. It's a story about strong women, with whom Birch's life has been blessed. It is also a profound allegory of good and evil, and a deep exploration of human interaction, black and white, alternately beautiful and tender, cruel and unsettling.
"[Tony Birch brings] a lifetime of knowledge about Australian history, social policy, and cultural identity to this book, a deceptively simple story about family love that is rich in humanity and purpose, and hope. The White Girl is worth your time and will reward you over and over again."
The White Girl is not given to sentimentality; instead it is a celebration of Aboriginal resilience and kinship in response to trauma.
09/01/2022
Until May 27, 1967, Indigenous Australians' movements, education, and work were regulated, usually at the hands of local Australian police, who routinely removed children from their homes. In this story, set in the early 1960s, Odette Brown, an Indigenous person, is 63 years old. Her daughter disappeared 13 years earlier, and her baby daughter Sissy was left in Odette's care. Odette and Sissy live happily until Odette finds that she requires surgery and several weeks of bed rest. There is no one else to care for Sissy, so Odette applies for a required travel permit, so she can try to find her daughter. On the train, Odette and Sissy meet Jack, an Indigenous man, who gives Odette his address in case she needs help. Odette fails to find her daughter. When she collapses and is taken to the hospital, Sissy finds Jack, who helps them. Birch (Blood ) creates a moving tribute to the courage and determination of Indigenous Australians. Narrator Shareena Clanton conveys the calm determination of Odette, the naïveté of Sissy, and the struggle of Indigenous people to win their freedom. VERDICT Listeners of historical fiction will enjoy this story.—Joanna M. Burkhardt
Shareena Clanton's performance is not always polished, but it is perfect for this hammer blow of an audiobook about mid-century racism in small-town Australia. The "white" girl, Sissy, is being raised by her dark-skinned grandmother, Odette, in a rural county that gives local (white, male) officials total jurisdiction over Aboriginal children. It's not that we don't know stories of Black or First People legally controlled by those most likely to demean, exploit, and harm them--guess why Sissy is half-white--it's that hearing it in a new accent, told of people under a different sun, makes it new. Birch's powerful story of Sissy and Odette's refusal to bow to circumstance, and of those who help and the prices they pay, is both shattering and indelible. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Shareena Clanton's performance is not always polished, but it is perfect for this hammer blow of an audiobook about mid-century racism in small-town Australia. The "white" girl, Sissy, is being raised by her dark-skinned grandmother, Odette, in a rural county that gives local (white, male) officials total jurisdiction over Aboriginal children. It's not that we don't know stories of Black or First People legally controlled by those most likely to demean, exploit, and harm them--guess why Sissy is half-white--it's that hearing it in a new accent, told of people under a different sun, makes it new. Birch's powerful story of Sissy and Odette's refusal to bow to circumstance, and of those who help and the prices they pay, is both shattering and indelible. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
★ 2022-01-26
Odette Brown is the proverbial strong Black woman, but that's where simple categorizations cease. Odette’s daughter, Lila, abandoned her own toddler more than a decade ago, leaving the light-skinned girl in Odette’s care. Now Sissy is on the verge of her teenage years, having known only the love and protection of her grandmother, and a rigid new officer, Sgt. Lowe, has arrived to run the local police station. Unlike the old guard, which was content leaving well enough alone, this new lawman is a zealot, convinced of the righteousness of his cause, which spells trouble for Odette and Sissy. They’re Aboriginals, and with her mother gone, Sissy should fall under the guardianship of the state, a policy that Lowe intends to enforce. The shameful true history of Australia’s racist policies of the early- and mid-20th century is presented in part through Odette’s story but also through snippets about other families torn apart by this disastrous program as Birch shines a light on the countless untold stories of the Stolen Generation. With accessible prose and a driving plot, Birch brings the period to life, and the depth and realism of the characters give the book a feeling of authenticity. Odette's dogged resolve is matched by the kindness and bravery of her supporters, both White and Black, as she and Sissy fight to stay together. Birch plumbs the murk for a story that’s all heart.
An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.
