The Yield

Yield: Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award, The
Read By: Travelling Gourmet Food and Book Club
Date Read: 2022-08
Author:
Genres: ,
Published: 2021-04-13
Knowing that he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for ten years when she learns of her grandfather's death. She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that her family home is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends she endeavours to save their land - a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river. Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch's The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity.
4.7Overall Score

Yield: Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award, The

Book Club Review 8 readers This was a book that we all agreed was very well written!! The structure of the book was a little hard to understand at first, but once we had worked it out, we all ...

  • Travelling Gourmet Food and Book Club Rating
    4.5
  • Barb's Rating
    4.8

Book Club Review
8 readers
This was a book that we all agreed was very well written!! The structure of the book was a little hard to understand at first, but once we had worked it out, we all enjoyed it. The book club members appreciated:
* the fascinating insight into and celebration of the Indigenous language
* the weaving of the 3 characters stories with Indigenous terms and meanings
* the shining of a light on the dream time!
* layers of time with 3 different narratives.

Barb’s Review
This was my favourite book for 2022!! Engaging, absorbing, insightful and superbly crafted!! Was highlighting sentences on almost every page 🙂 I LOVED the 3 narrative voices:
Past voice of Greenleaf – as he details his shock and despair at the inhumanness he observes
Voice of Albert – through the Indigenous dictionary entries that highlights how the Indigenous think, feel, view the world and their history
Present voice of August – grappling with implications of the past and its ongoing trauma.

After reading this book, I had a greater understanding of the Indigenous generational trauma, the displacement due to the loss of Indigenous language and the subsequent loss of culture.
Highly recommend!