Eucalyptus

1999 Winner of the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. On a property in western New South Wales a man named Holland lives with his daughter Ellen. Over the years, as she grows into a beautiful young woman, he plants hundreds of different gum trees on his land. When Ellen is nineteen her father announces his decision: she will marry the man who can name all his species of eucalyptus, down to the last tree... Eucalyptus is a modern fairy tale and an unpredictable love story. Haunting and mesmeric, it illuminates the nature of story-telling itself. "Wonderful... brilliantly told... a moving, exhilarating love story." Australian