Review: Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson

 

Title: Song of the Crocodile

Author: Nardi Simpson

Published: 29th September 2020, Hachette Australia

Status: Read September 2020 courtesy Hachette Australia

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My Thoughts:

Song of the Crocodile is a vibrant, and poignant story of three generations of the Billymil family who live on the fringes of a tiny outback town, Darnmoor, ‘The Gateway to Happiness’.

For Margaret, her daughter Celie, and Celie’s daughter, Mili, the Campgrounds along the banks of the Mangamanga River amongst their people, the Yuwaalaraay, is home, separated from the town proper by a rubbish tip, and the untenable contempt and suspicion of the white townspeople who have laid claim to their land.

Watched over by their ancestors, who are waiting and preparing for the time they will be needed to sing the ‘Song of the Crocodile’, life unfolds for the three women, the ordinary business of living touched by joy, tragedy, desire, pain, success and violence. Their stories are profound, their experiences both commonplace and, to me, unfamiliar. I felt for each of them, admiring their strengths, commiserating with their losses, appalled by their mistreatment.

Progress is a double-edged sword, wearing on the connections to family and land. Tension builds slowly, rifts widen, a reckoning approaches with a storm.

Rich, lyrical, and affecting, Song of the Crocodile is an accomplished debut from Nardi Simpson that tells a story of a people, their culture and country.

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