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A Short History of Longans
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain comes the story of an Irish-Chinese family over four generations in Australia.
‘They said you were a murdering bushranger.’
It’s the winter of 2049 and Daniel is elderly and long isolated. Soon after yet another devastating storm, this time destroying his beloved longan tree, he finds his fragile peace threatened by a growing friendship with a widowed neighbour and the appearance of a young reporter digging into a shameful event buried deep in his past.
As the novel moves back to autumn 2000 and then to summer 1949 and finally to the spring of the mid-nineteenth century, Daniel’s family’s history unspools, until we meet a Chinese bushranger, Ah Yang.
Intriguing and beautifully written, this dazzling novel unravels the secrets and memories of an Irish-Chinese family to explore what it means to belong to place, to ancestors, to ourselves – spanning centuries and generations.
‘Gorgeously kaleidoscopic and a deft reckoning of Australian identity. A multigenerational jewel that traces the roots and bloodlines of one family across centuries in ways only Mirandi Riwoe can.’ SIANG LU
‘A profoundly tender, intricately crafted novel about ancestry, longing and the fragile threads that bind one life to another. Mirandi Riwoe moves across generations with extraordinary grace, revealing how memory – kept, lost, inherited – shapes who we dare to become. This is storytelling of great compassion and quiet power. Luminous, compassionate and beautifully wrought – Mirandi Riwoe has written a deeply humane and exquisitely moving novel.’ SHANKARI CHANDRAN
‘They said you were a murdering bushranger.’
It’s the winter of 2049 and Daniel is elderly and long isolated. Soon after yet another devastating storm, this time destroying his beloved longan tree, he finds his fragile peace threatened by a growing friendship with a widowed neighbour and the appearance of a young reporter digging into a shameful event buried deep in his past.
As the novel moves back to autumn 2000 and then to summer 1949 and finally to the spring of the mid-nineteenth century, Daniel’s family’s history unspools, until we meet a Chinese bushranger, Ah Yang.
Intriguing and beautifully written, this dazzling novel unravels the secrets and memories of an Irish-Chinese family to explore what it means to belong to place, to ancestors, to ourselves – spanning centuries and generations.
‘Gorgeously kaleidoscopic and a deft reckoning of Australian identity. A multigenerational jewel that traces the roots and bloodlines of one family across centuries in ways only Mirandi Riwoe can.’ SIANG LU
‘A profoundly tender, intricately crafted novel about ancestry, longing and the fragile threads that bind one life to another. Mirandi Riwoe moves across generations with extraordinary grace, revealing how memory – kept, lost, inherited – shapes who we dare to become. This is storytelling of great compassion and quiet power. Luminous, compassionate and beautifully wrought – Mirandi Riwoe has written a deeply humane and exquisitely moving novel.’ SHANKARI CHANDRAN
- GenresAustralia
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2026
About the author
Mirandi Riwoe
9 books55 followersMirandi Riwoe is a Brisbane-based writer. She has been shortlisted for Overland's Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, the Josephine Ulrick Short Story Prize and the Luke Bitmead Bursary. She has also been longlisted for the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and CWA (UK) dagger awards. Her work has appeared in Review of Australian Fiction, Rex, Peril and Shibboleth and Other Stories. Her first novel, She be Damned, will be released by Legend Press (UK) in 2017. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
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.
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.
July 21, 2026
Mirandi Riwoe's third novel A Short History of Longans begins in 2049 with the poignant story of Daniel, grappling with old age, with troubling memories and with the effects of climate change on his beloved longan tree. There has been a ferocious storm and it seems as if this irreplaceable tree is doomed.
Daniel has learned the hard way that solitude is the best way to ward off intrusive strangers who want to rake up a painful past, so he's wary of an inquisitive neighbour called Olivia. In a novel composed of linked short stories and vignettes, this beginning — and the possibility of friendship blooming in the aftermath of the storm — captured my interest more than any other... so I was sorry to come to the end of 'Winter' and find that Daniel's future, like that of the planet remains unresolved.
'Autumn' is set in the year 2000, and this section also shows Riwoe's skill in depicting elderly characters with respect. Written from the perspective of Wendy, who has early onset dementia, it shows her confusion and her distress about her daughter's realisation of what her forgetfulness signifies. But it also shows Wendy's irrepressible spirit.
In 'Summer, the novel then travels back a further half-century to Los Angeles and the ambitions of Ruby, hoping to land a role in a film, and finding that her opportunities, such as they are in the era of the 'casting couch', clash with her responsibilities to her son back in Australia. Brought up by Ruby's Aunt Pearl, James doesn't know who his real mother is. Once again, this is a story that invites the reader to become invested in the fate of the characters.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/07/22/a...
Daniel has learned the hard way that solitude is the best way to ward off intrusive strangers who want to rake up a painful past, so he's wary of an inquisitive neighbour called Olivia. In a novel composed of linked short stories and vignettes, this beginning — and the possibility of friendship blooming in the aftermath of the storm — captured my interest more than any other... so I was sorry to come to the end of 'Winter' and find that Daniel's future, like that of the planet remains unresolved.
'Autumn' is set in the year 2000, and this section also shows Riwoe's skill in depicting elderly characters with respect. Written from the perspective of Wendy, who has early onset dementia, it shows her confusion and her distress about her daughter's realisation of what her forgetfulness signifies. But it also shows Wendy's irrepressible spirit.
In 'Summer, the novel then travels back a further half-century to Los Angeles and the ambitions of Ruby, hoping to land a role in a film, and finding that her opportunities, such as they are in the era of the 'casting couch', clash with her responsibilities to her son back in Australia. Brought up by Ruby's Aunt Pearl, James doesn't know who his real mother is. Once again, this is a story that invites the reader to become invested in the fate of the characters.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/07/22/a...
September 18, 2026
Reviewed by Nan van Dissel for UQP books and Bluewolf Reviews.
Award winning best-selling author Mirandi Riwoe, in her latest novel, “Short History of Longans” has created an historical fiction involving lesser-known times in Australia’s history; the Chinese-Australian settlement and experience. Working backwards through six generation from 2049 to 1849 the reader is exposed to a Queensland based Chinese-Irish family’s life: unravelling their secrets and highlighting the trials and tribulations of being of mixed ethnicity. Primarily told from the perspective of four beautifully crafted characters, the story unfolds.
One winter’s day in 2049, loner 75-year-old Daniel Connolly, finds that the heirloom Longan tree in his garden has fallen down during a storm. Then a curious but kindhearted neighbour comes into his life, but will the developing relationship survive the revelation of shameful episode in his past?
The reader is next introduced to Daniel’s irrepressible Aunt Wendy’s story. Of Chinese-Irish ethnicity, she struggles with early onset dementia as she spends her days researching her Irish family history.
In Los Angeles in the early 1900s mixed race Ruby despite her ‘exotic’ appearance struggles to land a role in a film. When finally, an opportunity arises, it classes with her responsibilities to her son, who is being raised by her Aunt Pearl in Australia.
Resilient unlikely matriarch Maria, an 18-year-old Irish orphan, who is sent out to Australia in the 1850’s, ties the story together.
Despite not every story being fully detailed in this literary fiction, this beautifully written book with its well-developed characters will appeal to readers. However, they will find themselves often consulting the useful multigenerational family tree at the front of the book to remind themselves, who was connected to whom.
Award winning best-selling author Mirandi Riwoe, in her latest novel, “Short History of Longans” has created an historical fiction involving lesser-known times in Australia’s history; the Chinese-Australian settlement and experience. Working backwards through six generation from 2049 to 1849 the reader is exposed to a Queensland based Chinese-Irish family’s life: unravelling their secrets and highlighting the trials and tribulations of being of mixed ethnicity. Primarily told from the perspective of four beautifully crafted characters, the story unfolds.
One winter’s day in 2049, loner 75-year-old Daniel Connolly, finds that the heirloom Longan tree in his garden has fallen down during a storm. Then a curious but kindhearted neighbour comes into his life, but will the developing relationship survive the revelation of shameful episode in his past?
The reader is next introduced to Daniel’s irrepressible Aunt Wendy’s story. Of Chinese-Irish ethnicity, she struggles with early onset dementia as she spends her days researching her Irish family history.
In Los Angeles in the early 1900s mixed race Ruby despite her ‘exotic’ appearance struggles to land a role in a film. When finally, an opportunity arises, it classes with her responsibilities to her son, who is being raised by her Aunt Pearl in Australia.
Resilient unlikely matriarch Maria, an 18-year-old Irish orphan, who is sent out to Australia in the 1850’s, ties the story together.
Despite not every story being fully detailed in this literary fiction, this beautifully written book with its well-developed characters will appeal to readers. However, they will find themselves often consulting the useful multigenerational family tree at the front of the book to remind themselves, who was connected to whom.
September 7, 2026
This one didn't really land for me. It's a six generation family story, set mostly in Australia and detailing a family of Irish and Chinese heritage. There was a lot to like. Riwoe writes well, almost poetically. The characters are well-defined and believable and I particularly enjoyed the tropical Queensland setting. The narration works backwards from 2049 (Winter), through 2000 (Spring), to 1950 (Summer) and finally 1851 (Autumn) where, somewhat confusingly, we start working forward (1900 - 1905). Threads are teased out from initial clues - the family recipe book, paternity/maternity issues, and the unquenchable longan tree. Not every story is fully detailed, readers must fill in the gaps if they can or wish to. There are hints at alcoholism, domestic violence, child molestation, racial prejudice and, in the most disturbing tale, the outright racism of the white Australia policy. I did have to refer (often) to the family tree provided but felt the rug was pulled out from me when some 40 pages from the end one character is revealed to have chosen a name change. I think one of the main factors for my ambivalence was the quiet sadness of many of the lives - over 200 years none of the characters experienced much happiness. Matriarch Maria, the Irish orphan sent out to Australia in the 1850s as a potential domestic servant, ties the whole story together and is the best example of the resilience that her descendants display.
August 19, 2026
This was a beautifully written book with well developed characters. I listened to it as an audiobook which I probably wouldn’t recommend - there were a lot of characters and dates and I struggled to keep the connections straight in my head. A real book would have seen me flicking back to remind myself of things.
Nonetheless, something different and clever and held my interest.
Nonetheless, something different and clever and held my interest.
August 23, 2026
I enjoy this writer’s ability to create well written stories involving lesser known aspects of Australian history. Northern parts of the country were populated by Chinese who came for the 1860s gold rush there. This novel traces characters from one such family with Irish convict origins added in. To bring the account past modern times up to 2050 is quite an achievement.
The novel joins First Name Second Name as great additions to Australian literature.
The novel joins First Name Second Name as great additions to Australian literature.
August 23, 2026
I’m totally biased and love all of Mirandi Riwoe’s books and this one did not disappoint. A lovely weaving of family history exploring themes of racism, belonging, the impact of family secrets. Somewhat heartbreaking - I was thankful it ended with a glimmer of hope…
September 9, 2026
Enjoyed this and became involved with each of the characters as their story was told over 200 years.
Thank everyone for that family tree in the front of the book.
I would have been confused without it.
Thank everyone for that family tree in the front of the book.
I would have been confused without it.
September 1, 2026
A stunning epic of familial and climate grief. I can’t stop thinking about this book!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews