The Kookaburra

Judges’ Report

The Kookaburra follows Diana, a year on from her husband’s death, as she reads his old emails and tries to rescue an injured kookaburra. The titular kookaburra subverts how animals often appear in grief narratives - disinterested in being anthropomorphised or cared for as part of Diana’s emotional journey. Shifting skillfully between moments in the present, memories long past and emails from Robert’s last months, the novel considers the arc of a life - how personalities and relationships change or stagnate across time. With prose as lyrical as it is assured, The Kookaburra is a moving and authentically drawn portrait of grief, care and growing old.