Author Mirandi Riwoe’s latest novel A SHORT HISTORY OF LONGANS (UQP 2026) once again showcases her extraordinary literary style, her lilting and evocative prose, her intimate characterisations, her ability to paint an enormous multigenerational portrait, her carefully researched histories (especially of characters of Asian descent), her sensual and sensuous words that capture charming and acute details and her ability to broach the subjects of racism, colonisation, immigration and integration with profound curiosity.
In addition, this book is structurally a work of ambitious and playful form, a kaleidoscopic novel, almost a collection of four interconnected novellas, beguiling and intriguing. Thankfully she includes a multigenerational family tree in the opening pages, highlighting the four characters on which she focuses each of the four sections. I found myself returning repeatedly to this family tree, to remind myself who was connected and how. But the most exciting aspect of the structure is the reverse chronology. Riwoe begins with the story of Daniel Connolly, in his 70’s in the winter of 2049. Daniel is a visual artist, a loner with an inquisitive neighbour, memories and false accusations awhirl in his mind, past trauma mixed with present thoughtfulness. It’s with Daniel we first meet the longan tree, which creates a meandering thread of connectivity and meaning throughout the novel.
Autumn is next (yes, after winter) and we are introduced to Wendy, Daniel’s aunt. The year is 2000 and Wendy is about 60 years old. Confusion, wavering memories and a dash of dementia or something similar rules her days as she researches her family history, interacts with her husband (who is sometimes there and sometimes not) and considers her Irish past. Her daughter, her ancestors, her dog … are they with her or are they sprites of her imagination? A recipe book is one of her prized possessions, one filled with handwritten dishes from long dead relatives, passed down from mother to daughter through the decades. As with Daniel, Wendy is beautifully crafted with so much care and detail. Many of her thoughts or memories ostensibly make no sense, but is that because of her disease? Or because the author has cleverly intertwined threads of the master tapestry into her life that will only become apparent once we have finished reading the entire book?
Summer brings Ruby Wong, loosely inspired by a real historical figure (as are several of the characters), Wendy’s aunt born in 1899. Her section is written as if a theatre script or film score, and indeed middle-aged Ruby is in the thespian trade, constantly wondering whether to lean into her Asian heritage or blend in with mainstream white Australia. As with each section, Ruby remembers or ponders her early life, mentioning characters we’ve met in other sections of the story, or making connections for the reader from what were previously unjoined vignettes or anecdotes. There are secrets in Ruby’s past that gradually unfurl like a string of paper ribbons, casting light on events from the future to which the reader is already privy, even though for Ruby they haven’t happened yet.
And finally, spring arrives and with it, Maria Barrett, the grand matriarch of the entire family tree, although when we read about her, she is a girl of 18, born in the early 1800’s, with no idea of what her future looks like, or the vast crop of seedlings she will be responsible for sprouting, or the twists and turns her descendants will take along the way. This last section is a little different – rather than a chronological account, the chapters bounce back and forth (early on Maria is 66 and assisting her granddaughter give birth), and also they concentrate on various of Maria’s descendants. Each short chapter is a perfectly phrased anecdote about a particular character, each adding detail, colour and movement to the already layered portrait Riwoe is creating.
It is here too that we finally learn more about Ah Yang (also known by other names), another real historical figure – a Chinese bushranger active in New South Wales, about whom several books, shows, films and paintings have been created. Ah Yang is the original Asian character in this family, as Maria Barrett represents the original Irish side. But it is not until the final pages of the novel that relationships become clear, paternity obvious, family circumstances and secrets revealed. There is some terrible trauma in this story, awful loss, but also joy and hope and anticipation. The fact that we, the readers, know the future before the characters do adds a heightened level of profound longing to this story as a whole.
You could choose any page at random from this novel and read exquisitely rendered prose, literary images that sing, astounding metaphors, discordant descriptions that somehow encapsulate exactly the sound, taste, smell, feel and touch of whatever is happening. Riwoe is a great observer of minutiae and is able to magic this on to the page in some sort of strange and beautiful alchemy.
If you enjoy a novel that requires some work of the reader, A SHORT HISTORY OF LONGANS will provide depth, curiosity and enough seemingly random scenes to provoke you to page backwards and forwards, and return often to the family tree, to work out exactly how each character or event is connected with other passages. But even if you prefer to allow this complexity to wash over you, it is possible to become entirely lost in the luminous prose, focusing only on the scene before you and not needing to know exactly how the jigsaw works. It is enough to see it finished, a beautiful picture.
Riwoe’s writing always addresses the most human conditions: belonging, desire, connection, betrayal or misunderstandings, forgiveness and sacrifice, ancestral duty, shame, ambition, and what it means to be a person of colour in Australia. Not a First Nations Australian, but someone of mixed ethnicity who must move through life (at least in years past) either leaning into that difference or attempting to hide it. I’d like to think that time is over but unfortunately our current political climate seems it is still all too relevant.
A SHORT HISTORY OF LONGANS is impossible to describe or depict in full as it is such a rich, layered, multigenerational, multicultural, wide-ranging family saga, punctuated by particular insights and moments of specific clarity. A glorious novel. I predict the sales of longans will soar.