With thanks to the author Nardi Simpson, Hachette and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this eARC.

One of the most poignant books I have read in 2024. Nardi is a truly beautiful writer, her words were both resplendent and transcendent, connecting to the viewer in a very visceral way. She is lyrical, every sentence a breath of air in which to inhale and absorb.
Our main character is Ginny, a first nations poet who takes us through the gathering of herself post break up. She writes and self publishes by placing her words around the city, planting them alongside natives. We dip and dive between her experiences in the now, and then to sprite who enlightens us with beliefs of our first nations, dreamtime and how people came to be. Whilst I started off this novel wanting more of Ginny, I quickly became enraptured by sprite and passages of creation. We explore connection, belonging, place and people.
The Belburd is captivating and Nardi’s writing, genius.

CONNECTIONS: ‘THE BELBURD’ BY NARDI SIMPSON

The new novel by award-winning Yuwaalaraay singer and writer Nardi Simpson is tricky to describe. It is unlike any book I have read.

There are two narratives within the book, seemingly disparate but actually closely connected. There is the story of Ginny, a young poet trying to make sense of her world and her place in it. She writes poems and ‘plants’ them around her environment, literally planting them with some soil and a little water as she moves around her neighbourhood.

Then there is the being whose experience as a birth spirit is told in first person. ‘Sprite’ is rolling around in Eel Mother’s belly, meeting other spirits who are waiting to be born, and those who did not make it or do not survive.

The two narratives connect when we realise that Sprite and the other birth spirits see all. From this, we can perhaps understand that everything and everyone are connected, from times past into the future.

It is a fascinating way to introduce readers to a view of the world and the spirit that is very different from mainstream Western thought and traditions.

For this reason, it is a book to come to with an open heart and an open mind, and let the ideas and language wash over you, absorbing their meaning without trying to.

The belburd is published by Hachette in October 2024.
My thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an early copy to review.

The Belburd by Nardi Simpson is a lyrical, literary marvel. I was mesmerised, captivated, enthralled by this novel. The prose is stunning and imbued with culture that gave the writing such a richness.

Beautifully rooted in First Nations people's lore and dreamtime, it reads as a deeply spiritual and profound book. Exploring creation, belonging and connection, and life itself, this book was intellectually stimulating and sometimes confusing, but boy, was I having a good time reading it. I'll be thinking and reflecting on this book for a long time.

Nardi Simpson is appearing at my local writers festival and I cannot wait to go and hear her speak.

Highly recommend. I'll be recommending this book to every reader I know.

Singer, composer, author Nardi Simpson burst onto the fiction scene with her 2020 novel Song of the Crocodile. That book told the multigenerational tale of an Aboriginal community in country Australia but also leaned heavily on myth and dreamtime stories. Her follow up, The Belburd is a very different beast. Essentailly two very different but related tales The Belburd is much more rooted in both Aboriginal lore and current experience.
At the heart of the novel is Ginny Gilboong, a young Aboriginal woman living in Sydney who dreams of being a poet. She decides that she will publish her poems naturally - planting them with seeds around the city. Her tale follows her as she encounters and has to deal with different perspectives of Aboriginality but also reflects her poetry as she consigns it to the earth. The other half of the novel is a more spiritual side - it follows a spirit creature who helps bring new children into the world before becoming an embryo herself. Reading this side of the narrative almost feels like reading a book in translation - there is so much cultural nuance and deep references that readers are unlikely to pick up. But that's okay, because in some respects this book is not written for those readers. Or rather it is enough to give them a glimpse of a rich and complex cosmology even if they do not understand it deeply.
That makes The Belburd a difficult book for a non-Aboriginal reader to review. As a work of fiction it is vital and conscious of reflecting the world in which it is created. But there are depths to it that will deeply satisy some readers but which can only be glimpsed by the rest.

A beautifully written book with exquisite prose. Poet Ginny is regaining her confidence following a relationship breakup. Through her self publishing journey, she finds a truly meaningful way of reconnecting with her people and resolve her inner turmoil.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me … I wanted to like it, and i’m sure many will, It just didn’t connect for me in the way I wanted as a reader and I was unable to finish it. I hope it meets much more success with readers who prefer this style of story and wish all the best to the author. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

An important book. I love this author. I need to reflect deeply on this book. A good read and intellectually stretching. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Well I’m going to need everyone on here who loved Song of the Crocodile to get this when it comes out in September, read it, and then join me in a chat group to dissect and discuss. I don’t think this is one to read alone – I need my fellow readers.

Song of the Crocodile is one of my all time favourite books, and I think my favourite ever written by an Australian Aboriginal writer. For that reason this one came with some pretty HUGE expectations from me, and well, I devoured this in a few days. It had me captivated. I loved trying to piece together what was going on and having my brain in absolute overdrive. I loved the connection to Country and dreamtime and storytelling and the way Simpson weaves it all together.

It’s poetic, mythical and sublime in places, and I admit, a little confusing at times. It took me a fair while to sink into the story. But at the very end I felt my heart swelling when I was piecing it all together, and I've thought about it constantly since.

If you love books along the vein of Crocodile, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, Maali Almeida, Taboo, or Lincoln in the Bardo - a little bit different, a little bit experimental, then I think you will also love this one. I cannot wait to hear what Bookstagram thinks of this one!