Heart of the Grass Tree
When Pearl’s grandmother Nell dies unexpectedly, she and her family – mother Diana, sister Lucy – return to Kangaroo Island to mourn and say farewell to her. Each of them knew Nell intimately but differently, and each woman must reckon with Nell’s passing in her own way. But Nell had secrets, too; and as Pearl, Diana and Lucy reflect on their feelings about the island, Pearl starts to pull together the scraps Nell left behind – her stories, poems, paintings – and unearths a connection to the island’s early history, of the European sealers and their first contact with the Ngarrindjeri people.
As the three women are pulled apart from each other in grief, Pearl’s deepening connection to the generations before them, who formed the foundation of the island, grounds her, and will ultimately bring the women back to each other.
