It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace?

Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved?

This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms.

'Told through the voices of the people who know it best, all those deeply important events from times long before Cook imagined a Southern Land.' - Debra Dank

'A rich and transportive novel' - Books+Publishing

'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this ... [A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose

'This riveting novel based on Yolngu oral history takes the reader inside a coastal Arnhem Land community in the 1600s, at a point of crisis... As we watch the situation unfold with dread, we also experience the everyday joy of Yolngu life, the strength of culture and the wonder of their cosmology.' - The Guardian

'A glimpse into pre-colonial Australia and a world still powerfully alive in the Yolngu imagination.' - Kim Mahood

'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke