A haunting, powerful novel about the power of the land and the passions of people trying to make it their own. Winner of the Miles Franklin Award in 2005. His father dead by fire and his mother plagued by demons of her own, William is cast upon the charity of his unknown uncle - an embittered old man encamped in the ruins of a once great station homestead, Kuran House. It's a baffling and sinister new world for the boy, a place of decay and secret histories. His uncle is obsessed by a long life of decline and by a dark quest for revival, his mother is desperate for a wealth and security she has never known, and all their hopes it seems come to rest upon William's young shoulders. But as the past and present of Kuran Station unravel and merge together, the price of that inheritance may prove to be the downfall of them all. The White Earth is a haunting, disturbing and cautionary tale. 'A lean intelligent and incisive novel.' -- The Sydney Morning Herald 'McGahan writes with a total command of thematic design and narrative structure. The White Earth draws on the full resource of the novel as an imaginative form to explore some of the most urgent social and political issues haunting Australia today.' -- Judging Panel, the Miles Franklin Award