A Catholic priest is assigned to a remote mission station in Australia’s Kimberley region to maintain the culture of colonisation. But the converter becomes the converted; the priest is consumed by a mystery of faith, an entwining with nature, far more powerful than anything his own doctrines can help him counter or comprehend. He is confronted by a world in which there is no separation of the material from the mystical. Most confronting of all are laws and lores from the beginning of human time. The priest’s attempts to bring this experience to his ministry trigger violent, passionate repercussions.
Author's notes:
1. The Soul Stone was initially published in 1993 by Hodder & Stoughton but its distribution curtailed when its printing was caught out by a corporate take-over and the new publishing entity had a different market focus. In the intervening years the book has been re-edited, including weaker sections re-written or removed to tighten the narrative and make the language more contemporary.
2. Of critical importance, this is not a European Australian writing an Indigenous story. It is the story of the profound influence of Indigenous culture and land spirituality on a European Australian - the reversal of the coloniser narrative.
The Prairies Book Review:
A quietly haunting novel of faith, power, and moral reckoning.
In Collis’s compelling novel, a young priest confronts the limits of faith in the harsh heart of Australia. In 1960, Australia, Simon Bradbury’s childhood unfolds between the cold discipline of his Catholic education and the dry, desperate rhythms of his family’s farm. Sandwiched between the two, Simon seeks salvation in the Church. Decades later, sent to an Aboriginal mission in the desert, he discovers faith’s darker side: where obedience masks cruelty and silence becomes sin. Beneath the relentless sun, Simon must face the truth about his Church, and the man he has become.
Collis renders Simon’s early world of incense, hymns, and fear with unsentimental clarity. Brother Wheatley’s strap and Father MacNamara’s charisma define two faces of the Church’s authority: cruelty and charm. Beyond those walls lies a failing farm, a father worn down by the land, and a mother bound by endurance. Simon’s turn to the priesthood carries less the echo of faith than the hush of despair. At Gunwinddu, Collis delves into how faith, bent by colonial power, becomes corruption. Through Simon’s gradual disillusionment, Collis captures the erosion of certainty with the precision of lived experience. His prose is taut and lyrical and the pacing leisurely. By the novel’s end, Simon’s struggle is no longer with belief but with conscience itself. Collis resists redemption. Instead, he offers a hard-won clarity. Readers looking for a literary, character-driven story that explores faith, conscience, and the moral cost of obedience will want to take a look.
Poignant, searching, and humane; a novel that confronts what remains when faith reaches its breaking point.