A Short History of Longans

‘They said you were a murdering bushranger.’

It’s the winter of 2049 and Daniel is elderly and long isolated. After yet another devastating storm, this time destroying his beloved longan tree, he finds his fragile peace threatened by a growing friendship with a widowed neighbour and the appearance of a young reporter digging into a shameful event buried deep in his past.

Across the autumn of 2000, the summer of 1949 and the restless springs of the mid‑nineteenth century, the tangled roots of Daniel’s family tree unfurl – to the moment an Irish orphan finds her fate entwined with that of a Chinese bushranger.

Intriguing and beautifully written, this dazzling novel spanning centuries and generations unravels the secrets and memories of one Irish-Chinese family to explore what it means to belong – to place, to ancestors, to ourselves.