HarperCollins Publishers Australia has announced that it has acquired ANZ rights to Stan Grant’s new book, The Queen is Dead.

The Queen is Dead will be published in the week of King Charles’ coronation and is a powerful book about the bitter legacy of colonialism for Indigenous people and the need for the end of monarchy in Australia.

The book grew from an article Stan Grant wrote for the ABC, in which he stated: ‘We aren’t supposed to talk about colonisation, empire, violence about Aboriginal sovereignty, not even about the republic. We’ve skirted around the edges of the truth of the legacy that the Queen leaves in Australia, a reign that lasted almost a third of our colonial history. Everyone from the prime minister down has told us it is not appropriate. I’m sure I am not alone amongst Indigenous people wrestling with swirling emotions. Among them has been anger. The choking asphyxiating anger at the suffering and injustice my people endure.’

Publisher Catherine Milne said: ‘A new book by Stan Grant is always an event. This book especially feels particularly momentous – and incredibly timely. The Queen is Dead will be a passionately argued, deeply personal, important, urgent, and necessary book. It will be a book that demands attention, response, and will provoke national conversation and debate. This book will be a privilege to publish.’

In response to the news of his new book, Stan Grant said: ‘This is a book I just had to write. The moment demands it. I have come to it with urgency and passion. My family has been haunted by empire. I have travelled the world and back asking what put us on the other side of history? This is my answer.’

Grant’s other books include Talking To My Country and With the Falling of the Dusk.