Terra Nullius

Terra Nullius is witty, weird, moving and original. - Weekend Australian

Set in an Australia that is simultaneously recognisable and bleakly foreign, Coleman’s work of speculative fiction tells a story of colonisation and displacement that is both devastating and all too familiar. In our politically tumultuous time, the novel’s themes of racism, inherent humanity and freedom are particularly poignant. - Books + Publishing

Noongar writer Claire Coleman’s debut novel, Terra Nullius, envisions a continent disturbingly familiar and worryingly futuristic. Disturbing because it opens with a scenario of settler dispossession; worrying because Coleman’s stories serve as a critique of recent history and prophesy a “second wave invasion and a post-colonial future”. - Sydney Morning Herald

Coleman makes a significant contribution to the emerging body of Aboriginal writers such as Ellen van Neerven and Alexis Wright who write spectral and speculative fiction to critique the vicious fiction of the colonial archive. - Canberra Times

Coleman, a south coast Noongar woman from Western Australia, goes to the heart of Australia’s challenge as a nation - how to universalise the experience of Indigenous people, so that it is something all Australians can understand. This is the essence of good fiction: it takes us away from our present reality and into another. - Zoe Pollock, Brisbane Writers Festival

Coleman is unflinching. - Sydney Review of Books

Claire G. Coleman’s timely debut is testimony to the power of an old story seen afresh through new eyes. Terra Nullius tells a very familiar tale - with a twist. - Adelaide Review

Terra Nullius takes reader expectations and confounds them, this is not the story you think it is… but at the same time it’s all too familiar. - AU Review