In forcing us to confront the evil we are capable of they also ask us to acknowledge our shared humanity. But the books I mentioned above are both works of art and also works of witnessing. For nearly two decades now, Australian politics has been corrupted by a toxic and destructive national debate about asylum seekers and refugees. That great leveller, history, will ultimately judge us on what kind of country we created for ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century. I hope that in the future that many of the narrators will be the writers of a great new wave of Australian literature.

Source: The Guardian March 24, 2017 21:00 UTC