'With its emotional power and rich symbolism, The Rain Heron is an immersion in landscape, climate and an animal world that lives despite us, not for us. Robbie Arnott has imagined a creature, by turns exquisitely beautiful and terrifying, the likes of which I have never seen in Australian literature. His titular heron is a source of breathless wonder, of reverence. Arnott is just as wise with his human characters, with their wretchedness and elation, love and mistrust. There are images in this book that are entirely new to me, and I will cherish them."—Jock Serong

"Robbie Arnott is singlehandedly reinventing Australian literature. The Rain Heron is a soaring feat of the imagination."—Bram Presser

"Exquisite. Reading it feels like hearing a legend from our past, from our near future; like remembering something you had always known but somehow forgotten. It is both fantastical and deeply true."—Jane Rawson

"Genuinely and completely magnificent—a magical thing."—Robert Lukins

"An intoxicating fable from an extraordinary imagination. Robbie Arnott writes like the words want to be his."—Anna Spargo-Ryan

"In The Rain Heron, Robbie Arnott has turned his gaze to civilisation’s need to control and understand the natural world. This is a book full of heart—it’s so richly imagined, inventive and beautifully written, with a strong message, but is never didactic. It’s like nothing I’ve read and Arnott has quickly become one of my favourite authors."—J. P. Pomare