This book of short stories is amazing, in particular the novella, My Monticello. Set in Charlottesville after the heatwaves, wildfires, and demonstrations, it traces "the unraveling" when the power fails and the guys with the tiki torches return and drive people away from their homes. A diverse busload of students and others--including the protagonist, De'Naisha Love, and her grandmother, MaViolet, descendants of Jefferson and Sally Hemings--escape the mayhem and flee to Jefferson’s hilltop home, Monticello. Over 19 days the group organizes and tries to fend for iself. The writing sizzles.
The Yield is a revelation of a silenced people putting their essence into words and sending its message out into the world. Winch's award-winning novel begins with August, a woman of aboriginal descent, returning to Australia to attend her grandfather's funeral. The family homestead in remote Massacre Falls is in danger of being taken over by a tin mine, which affords August an uncertain homecoming. Along with excerpts form the dictionary of the Wiradjuri langauge compiled by August's grandfather, the novel stretches to encompass a German missionary's account of the story of Massacre Falls itself, amid these plotlines, August slowly regains her connection to her people and the land they're losing. Winch's playful yet clear-eyed telling gains the force of a shout against the forces of oppression that would destroy us all.
