On a hot October afternoon, a girl walks barefoot out of the Wimmera desert, near the small town of Gatyekarr.

She finds sanctuary with Beth, a regenerative farmer and collector of seeds, devoted to bringing her family’s farm back to life. The arrival of the mysterious ‘desert girl’ unsettles the community and old tensions erupt. The longer the girl stays silent, the more volatile the town becomes. Who is she and what does her presence mean?

The Desert Knows Her Name is an exquisite novel that speaks to a deep longing for connection with the land, and the silences that persist in contemporary Australia.