Astraea

Kate Kruimink is a writer from southern Lutruwita. Her first novel, A Treacherous Country, won the 2020 Australian/Vogel's Prize, was shortlisted for the 2021 Prime Minister's Award for Literature and longlisted for the 2021 Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in the UK. She was one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists of 2021. Her second novel, Heartsease, will be released mid-2024 with Picador (Australia and NZ).

“A shipful of women corralled by a crew of men crosses an ocean whose swell is deeper and darker than imaginable. Is it a ghost ship?  It’s a haunting matter. This powerful novella, historical and immediate, atmospheric, visceral, lyrical and frank, crosses the horizon between story, history and reality. Its passengers might be in the grip of some foul brutal institutional power but their life, their vitality and their survival form the beating heart of a unique read, the language of which forms a rough fabric so tangible you can feel it on your skin. The blood heat and the cool clean soul of this tale will stay with you long after you’re back on dry land.” Ali Smith ‘A novella of clarity and strange grace, etched with a fierce and patient skill.’ Sebastian Barry

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