Song of the Crocodile


Song of the Crocodile is a 2020 novel by the Australian author Nardi Simpson.
It was the winner of the 2021 ALS Gold Medal.

Synopsis

The Australian country town of Darnmoor features a welcoming sign calling it "the Gateway to Happiness", a notion that is only applicable depending on the colour of your skin. The novel follows the Billymil family, who live just outside of town, across three generations, and details the tensions that exist between them and the local white settlers.

Critical reception

Reviewing the novel for Australian Book Review Jane Sullivan called the novel "one of many valuable and sometimes enthralling cross-cultural moments".
In The Saturday Paper Khalid Warsame found in the novel "stunning moments of perfect fluidity and permeability, where Simpson’s deep engagement with the ancestries and cosmology of her people comes through".

Awards