In the novel which won the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Tara Jane Winch immerses her readers in layers of time. The Yield is a contemporary story wrapped in thousands of years of history. It centres on August Goondiwindi, a troubled young Indigenous woman who returns to Australia from England to attend her grandfather’s funeral.
Winch achieves the sensation of time travel in several ways. She writes about it explicitly in relation to August’s grandfather who travels in spirit away from the Boy’s Home of his childhood. Removing him from the harsh reality of his circumstances, his ancestors take him back in time teach him the lore he is forbidden to learn.
Time travel is also present in the structure of the novel. Chapters which tell August’s story are flanked by two other styles of chapter. One is in the form of a serialised letter written in the early 1900s by the Lutheran pastor who set up the local mission station. The other chapters contain lists of words from the local Indigenous language, lost as a result of mission restrictions, and reclaimed by August’s grandfather. As he explains the meaning of the words, more elements of culture and of August’s family story emerge. In a subtle progression, the three sources gradually converge to reveal the truth of the past.
At the beginning of the novel, August presents as a young woman weighed down by the suffering of her people and by the losses and trauma of her own history. The novel explores the multiple reasons for August’s unhappiness and her slow process toward healing.
At the centre of the story is August’s immediate family: her grandmother Elsie, her aunts who arrive for the funeral, and her dead grandfather who is a vivid presence in the story. The love and fun of her family’s company provide a starting point for August’s recovery.
August’s discovery of her grandfather’s papers helps her find the key to her confidence. His work also provides her with the evidence and motivation to join the fight against a mining company which threatens her grandparent’s house and land.
The Yield contains some harrowing historical content, a challenge to every Australian reader. The impact of its truth-telling is only increased by the beauty of Winch’s visceral writing, the multi-layered time perspective of the novel, and its depth of historical research.
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Title: The Yield
Author: Tara June Winch
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia
Year of Publication: 2019
ISBN: 978 0 14378 576 0
Pages: 338
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