Summary

Sweet Water - Stolen Land interweaves the destinies of two families, black and white, in this powerful, cinematic frontier novel.

Racial brutality and the tragic account of the Myall Creek massacre underscore the story of Ginny and Wollumbuy, Kamilaroi people of the Warrumbungle Range. Mysterious killings follow the arrival of Karl and Gudrun Maresch, a German couple who establish a Lutheran mission near the young settlement of Coonabarabran.

A work of fiction set in 1869, Sweet Water - Stolen Land is based on the true accounts surrounding the brutal settlement of his clan's ancestral lands. This book is about land, art, love, lust, religious fervour, massacre and hope.

Sweet Water - Stolen Land is Philip McLaren's first novel. It won the David Unaipon Award for Black Literature, became a national top-ten bestseller, selling out its first print run in the first week, and is translated into Japanese.

It's very common for first time writers [to] reach back and grab a bit of their own heritage. It's kind of foundation work for their career. And so that's what I did.

— Philip McLaren about Sweet Water: Stolen Land