The Minstrels

by Eva Hornung

Gem and Will grow up on a farm above the chasm and pool known as the Minstrels, a site where both are broken, each by the other. One will disappear. One will, eventually, be transformed.

Through her encounters with people and through art, land and language, Gem is remade while the world outside changes and time runs out.

This long-awaited new novel from one of our finest writers is a sweeping epic set in literal and figurative blight in a fictional Australian geography; a work of self, time and the very end of something. Wild, mythic and potent, The Minstrels is an apocalyptic redemption fable that weaves the history and probable fate of the world into the life of one woman.

‘Hornung is a beautiful writer’ Michael Robotham, ABC RN

‘Utterly gripping...a compelling read.’ Conversation

‘This novel had such a tender beauty in so many moments, that even with the devastation that overshadows the story, the overriding feeling was joy.’ Readings

‘Hornung has seeded the narrative with complicated issues that bloom, in her characteristically fertile prose, into ambivalent flower.’ Age

‘An epic...the beauty and playfulness of the prose dazzles, and Gem is an extraordinary creation.’ Guardian

‘Beautiful….a startlingly original portrait of familial love and grief.’ Books+Publishing

‘Important, engaging, and intimate...at times heartbreaking, at times really funny. A joy to read and re-read.’ Good Reading

Genres: Climate Change, 21st Century, Fiction, Australia

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2026

About the author

aka Eva Sallis

is an Australian novelist. Eva Hornung was born 1964 in Bendigo. She has an MA in literature and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Adelaide. Sallis lived in Yemen while undertaking research for her PhD, and now lives and works in Adelaide.

Hornung's first novel, the best-selling "Hiam", won the 1997 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the 1999 Nita May Dobbie Literary Award. Her second novel City of Sealions was well received, and her novel-in-stories, Mahjar won the Steele Rudd Award. Her 2005 book Fire Fire, told the story of gifted children growing up in a dysfunctional, loving family in 1970s Australia. Her 2009 novel Dog Boy won the 2010 Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction. She is a human rights activist, helping to found the organisation Australians Against Racism

Reviews

[Gayle · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Survivor girl trope with beautiful, if at times somewhat tedious writing. It initially read to me like some kind of cartoon ECG machine - flatlining along and then a big spike and then right back down again. A revelation and shock and then back to flatline storytelling. I could have left it at any point. It was strange, but I didn’t and I was rewarded by a much better flow as the book went on, and then back to being annoyed as it again became tedious and disjointed - and then again up and down up and down.

It read like a much older book to me, it did not have the feel of a new release. Maybe it was because time frames were hard to gauge. It felt initially like it began in the 50s, then I revised this to the 70s, then possibly 80s or even the 90s…and then it ended in some semi dystopian future time. It was all a bit of a mess.

I felt nothing for Gem, the main character. I felt very much on the outside of her story, and found it hard to picture any of the characters. For a book so wordy, this seems amiss. Maybe we aren’t meant to know Gem, as she hardly knew herself, but none of the characters outside of her (and to an extent Joy), conversely, had much character building at all.

I found it didn’t hold my interest and that I read it slowly. Not because it was dense (although it was) or that I was thinking about it a lot, but rather I wasn’t picking it up while I was eating lunch, waiting somewhere, or just sneaking 15mins in etc - rather scrolling instead, which is never a good sign. (Often the start of a reading slump for me, but I don’t allow this to happen anymore!)

I know from reading my review of ‘Dog Boy’ that it must have been the same there as I took a loooong time to read it, but I liked it. And I didn’t (totally) dislike this either. Strange. Strange writing style. The point? Not sure. It was like she just wrote whatever came to mind and cobbled it into some semblance of a story.

The book follows the life of Gem, her relationship with her family, in particular her “brother” and her life through childhood in a small farming town in (probably) South Australia, uni, work and farming, and then a whole lot of random stuff that happens around her and her subsequent relationships. Not a lot of detail in these, but a lot of words about other things, often leaving me wondering the point.

I was interested in the farming information, but for a book with a lot of words, a lot went unsaid, which I’m ok with a lot of the time. In this instance however, it bothered me when things were written as if we already knew the story, which we didn’t, only snippets. For example when speaking of the neighbour’s murder/suicide: “She wasn't going to share the Brandts' long sad story with…” or was it another suicide on top? Not knowing this annoyed me.

A story of belonging and not belonging, family, (and not family) and found family and of place and our place in the world. Importantly it serves also a commentary on land ownership in Australia and Aboriginal traditional ownership, and how Aboriginals are so often locked out of their own traditional Country.

Overall it was like it was something written for a long time, just writing without a plan, without an aim, disjointed. A book for a book’s sake.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down
Told in two parts, The Minstrels, follows the long life of Gem somewhere in rural South Australia. Concentrating mainly on her childhood, and then her adult life as the world moves towards an apocalyptic state. A book club read and one I had mixed feelings about. There is some beautiful writing :

"... she liked Road and its odd denuding effect; return was so invigorating, as if her self - her whole Self - waited at the gate to the farm, holding out warm clothes and a loving embrace."

There are also a number of challenges to be faced by the reader, a number of questions which remain after the cover is closed. Having heard the author speak about the novel, and reading the note at the back, I was struck by the research and connection she had to the people, to language, to country. And yet during the book club discussion this was questioned by the revelations of a very reliable source who had a different take on the Adnyamathanha language than that of the author. A work of fiction (I remind myself) and one that will stay with me for the writing, for the questions it posed and yet was ultimately also somewhat frustrating.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new novel from award winning Australian author Eva Hornung is always an event for booklovers. A Victorian-born author who now lives in rural South Australia, Hornung is not a prolific writer, and we have to wait a while before there is something new to pique our interest.

Writing as Eva Sallis, Hornung won the Vogel for her first novel Hiam (1998), (which I read pre-blog). She won the 2004 Steele Rudd award for Mahjar (2003) while The Marsh Birds (2006) won the (now defunct) Asher Award and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Age Book of the Year Award. Writing as Eva Hornung, she won won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Dog Boy (2009, see my review), while The Last Garden (2017, see my review) was shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin and Voss Literary Awards, and longlisted for the ALS Gold medal.

The Minstrels is worth the wait. Charting the course of one woman’s life from about the late 20th century into her old age in a near future becoming dystopian, the novel asserts the power and possibility of remaking identity in the face of changes which impose adaptation and acceptance.

Part I is the wholly absorbing story of Gem and Will, siblings of vastly different temperaments and abilities, growing up on a farm in a landscape drawn from the author's imagination.

The Minstrels, unlike the drought, were real: a half chasm, half gorge through which the river ran and then reissued, changed, a mile downstream.  The chasm and pool at the base of the waterfall bordered their farm and the Covernses' farm.  (p.12)

Just who owns The Minstrels isn't clear, and no effort has been made to find that out.  For generations there had been unspoken access for all, and the notion of private property rights over it would have been faintly distasteful to those old farming families. It's a place for picnics and swimming and diving.  It has a sad history of accidental deaths and suicides, and its own legends and mysteries.

Even on a breathless day, the Minstrels played a strange music of sighs, murmurs, whines, whistles and echoes.  This must have been how they were named, although no one really knew who had named them.  (p. 13)

The Minstrels are also the site for a bizarre end-of-year adolescent ritual.  Parents don't talk about their own participation in this ritual, and the young people conceal their preparations for it with care.  A subsequent harvest of newborns is not the only consequence of 'the run'...

Part II transitions into speculative fiction that traces the transformation of Gem from city aimlessness into a farmer confronted by changes that cannot be denied. 

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/03/02/t...

[Rachel Killean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and with an absolutely insane plot trajectory. It would seem impossible for the early plot twist to not be the central device of any book it’s in, but that is what this author achieves.

On the other hand, I very much did not enjoy the Uncle Jim plot line, even recognising the author’s connection to country and language, it felt very ‘magical negro’ coded. I also would have loved for the main character to be a little more flawed (so beautiful, so clever, so handy, and also such a good survivor!).

Nonetheless 4 stars for the quality of the writing and for the final third which is off the charts.

[Maria Blackman · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5
Inconsistent. Hornung doesn't know whether she is writing a rural epic or an Australian version of The Road.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel in two parts and told from the point of view of Gem. Part 1 is during her childhood growing up on a farm somewhere in South Australia with her older brother Will and her parents Arthur and Joyleen. Life revolves around farm life and the need to go to town for supplies and church. Her school work is sometimes a chore and some teachers/classes inspire her. The area's landmark is swimming hole underneath a solid rock tower, called The Minstrels. The usual cliques at school are delineated, she being in the smart clique yet feeling estranged. At one point in the novel Gem decides to create an experiment, by doing poorly on assignments and exams, getting mostly B's instead of her straight A's. This causes consternation amongst her teachers and parents alike. Even once she decided to copy a classmates answers on an exam, a classmate that always does poorly and has a 'bad' reputation. When the tests are graded and returned. Gem got a B, while her classmate had a C - same answers - this reinforced in Gem that even the education system is rigged to favour those who are thought to be of higher intelligence and against those who aren't. The big social event and rite of passage for the schoolkids is the Harvest Dance, followed late at night by students wearing balaclavas to hide their faces and race with torch in hand to the Minstels. The girls reaching the top and look over the boys below and by fixating on one, entice the boy to catch her and have sex on the rock, all the while not revealing their face. This leads sometimes to embarrassment and sometimes outright danger, which is what happens to Gem. To avoid a spoiler this event changes everything for Gem and is life changing. In part two after spending time in the big city and attending uni, she decides she wants to return to the farm. In Part 2 she is now an adult and enjoys her life but feels something missing. Her parents die, Will, who is now in a wheelchair inherits the farm. But he "sells" it to his sister with a contract that she cannot sell it. The novel really gels in the second half, with Gem now running the farm, with 'big city' ideas and is admired and shunned for the reasons she is showing herself successful even though she's a woman. While she can have friendly conversations with the area farmers at the pub, she is also often avoided and at times ostracized especially when she becomes friendly with the local Aboriginal mob to the point of learning their language. The novel covers a long time period from the 60's through to a dystopian future. I really enjoyed this and found it hard to put the book down (always a good sign.)

[tamati laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Oh darlings. You innocent, ignorant children."

A sprawling, sweeping epic of Homeric proportions, Eva Hornung's novel reckons with a diaspora of commentaries; on life, love, relationships, grief, decolonisation, climate catastrophe, perseverance, and, perhaps most importantly, the indomitable Human Spirit and the yearning Human Condition. Focused on the milieu of one woman, 'The Minstrels' is breathtaking and wonderous. Oftentimes jarring and confronting, I think this novel truly shines in Gem's relationship with Uncle Jim and the passages wherein he is teaching her Adnyamathanha; a real Indigenous language that we, as the readers, are privileged to learn alongside Gem. Similarly, the prophetic explorations of the near-future inform empathy and compassion, with particular emphasis on Indigenous ownership and land rights. This book was great, thrilling, and ultimately, a necessary entrance into the AusLit canon and zeitgeist. 9/10

[Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gem ( Gemina) and Will grow up on a farm in country NSW. They are very close as brother and sister until the Harvest run - the local tradition where, to mark the Autumn harvest, kids chase each other under cover of darkness for the losing of virginity. But the event marks a catastrophe for both Gem and Will, that changes both of their lives forever.
The book then follows Gem as she leaves, goes to university and is later forced to return to run the now abandoned family farm. During this time she learns the local indigenous language and customs and finds an unconventional family, as the world slips into a Mad Max type existence and finally is reclaimed by nature.
An interesting book, beautifully written.

[Matthew Nye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Minstrels really piqued my interest and was a beautifully written, slow-paced read. The childhood and adult life of Gem were intertwined with unconventional or unlikely relationships and Eva Hornung took opportunities to weave important themes for our day into the story. This read resonated with my interests in environment, indigenous perspective, farm life and sustainability. The author wrote intriguingly about natural landscapes, helping me visualise the environments more deeply and meaningfully. There were some tense moments dotted throughout the book but the slower pace enthralled me less and was the reason for taking it from a 4-star to 3. I would still recommend the read to those interested.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book read in one go because as the cliche go's - could not in this lifetime put it down. So, not a lot of what should have been done today done. Its really hard to review books you have been mesmorised by. Why seperate our picky little minds from those books that steal us so thoroughly away - better to gather our hearts and the place where thoughts and emotions meet and go where it takes us, no backward glances as that closes the door on wherever we might have arrived. There is always something nitpicky to find but sometimes its just too small to matter. Loved this book sooo much and now hanging out to find the one with Dog in the title.

[Glenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found it hard to rate this book. Trying to understand what was happening at the beginning, the words kept me guessing what was actually happening, but this was more from my understanding it, rather than the author not explaining it. But it is a book, i may come back to, to fully understand it. It has a lot to offer. I nearly stopped reading it, but feel better for having finished it.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 3.5

[Belinda Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this Australian based exploration of social change from 1960s to a dystopian near future.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of The Minstrels

‘The long-awaited new novel from one of our finest writers.’
Australian

‘Gorgeous poetic writing and a fiercely sympathetic protagonist.’
ABC

‘Beautiful….a startlingly original portrait of familial love and grief.’
Books+Publishing

‘Important, engaging, and intimate. The writing is at times heartbreaking, at times really funny. A joy to read and re-read.’[5 stars]
Good Reading

‘This novel had such a tender beauty in so many moments, that even with the devastation that overshadows the story, the overriding feeling was joy.’
Readings

‘Asserts the power and possibility of remaking identity in the face of changes which impose adaptation and acceptance.’
ANZ Lit Lovers

‘An intriguing, powerful novel.’
Age

‘Utterly gripping...a compelling read.’
Conversation

‘Provocative and ambitious.’
Saturday Paper

‘A masterpiece.’
Guardian

‘Hornung is a beautiful writer.’
Michael Robotham, ABC RN

‘Gem’s world is rich and always surprising. Taking place over a lifetime spent, the novel is vast, proving a single setting can provide as much adventure as a person will ever need.’
InDaily