‘An impressive, urgent novel by a talented and courageous writer’ Mohsin Hamid
How do you mourn a person you loved who did terrible things?
After many years abroad, Harun and Roz return to Malaysian Borneo for the funeral of their oil-baron father, Yusuf – and to reckon with their inheritance. Yusef, might be a celebrity to many, but his children know that not only has he built the family’s immense wealth by destroying huge tracts of rainforest, but also that he was also involved in the violent disappearance of a man who stood in his way.
Harun is successful tech entrepreneur in Los Angeles while Roz is an artist struggling to stay afloat in Sydney, and both are determined to return something their father stole from the forests of their homeland. In their quest for redemption they grapple with the legacy of power and corruption and are haunted – by the ghosts of colonialism, the ghosts of family, the ghosts of language, and the ghosts of the forest itself.
A trailblazing journey across the globe, Fierceland is a language-bending story that weaves the past and the present into an emotionally powerful family saga that plays out at a mythical scale.
‘The forest may be disappearing, but in Musa’s words it still grows: fierce, alive, untameable’ Guardian Australia
‘Urgent and unforgettable’ – Elle
‘An impressive, urgent novel by a talented and courageous writer’ – Mohsin Hamid, author of EXIT WEST
‘Fierceland glows with energy and its mosaic of time and place, myth, game and imagination is reminiscent of the expansive work of Richard Powers. Fierceland is a novel of inheritances: ecological, historical, familial. Some cannot be undone. The challenge is to imagine futures within them. The forest may be disappearing, but in Musa’s words it still grows: fierce, alive, untameable.’ – Seren Heyman-Griffiths, Guardian
‘Omar Musa writes with great energy, a poetic force. Fierceland is a whimsy, time-travelling magical tale, a playful anti-colonial novel for our times . . . Do not sleep on the fierce talents of Omar Musa’ – Raymond Antrobus, author and poet
‘Fierceland is a majestic piece of epic narrative work. Omar Musa skillfully weaves various scenes, lives, viewpoints and times, connects different continents to concentrate on the modern history of Malaysia . . . Fierceland shook me to the core as an Asian. It forced me to look at Malaysia and the world and ponder the future in ways I never have’ – Bora Chung, author of CURSED BUNNY
‘Riveting and expansive, a profound yet intimate exploration of environmental catastrophe’ – Shannon Chakraborty, author of the Daevabad trilogy
‘Some novels arrive as whispers, asking politely to be read. Omar Musa’s Fierceland crashes through like a storm. Fierceland is not content to simply describe Borneo. It makes the land an active presence, alive with spirits, ghosts, myths and political wounds. Reading Fierceland feels like walking through a jungle where every shadow could either save or consume you . . . It is impossible to ignore Omar’s stylistic restlessness. Known for moving between poetry, hip-hop, theatre and visual art, he infuses Fierceland with the rhythm of all those forms.’ – The Malaysian Reserve
‘Fierceland is a visceral symphony – part elegy, part reckoning – where land, blood, and memory speak in equal measure. Omar Musa’s prose pulses with ancestral weight and raw tenderness, pulling us into a rainforest alive with ghosts, poetry, and resistance. This is not just a novel; it is an invocation, a reclaiming, a haunting call to awaken.’ – Etaf Rum, author of A WOMAN IS NO MAN and EVIL EYE
‘Fierceland takes the descriptive verve of Musa’s poetry and welds it to a celebration of the natural world despoiled by Yusuf’s boundless ambition. He runs real voltage through the damaged personalities of Roz and Harun as they come to terms with their father’s inheritance.’ – The Saturday Paper
‘An exuberant, shape-shifting blast of a novel, Fierceland takes us on a trip through time, countries and headspaces haunted by the ghosts of the past-constantly infused with Omar Musa’s restless energy and poet’s sensibility.’ – Tash Aw, author of The Harmony THE HARMONY SILK FACTORY, FIVE STAR BILLIONAIRE and THE SOUTH
Omar Musa is an author, visual artist, rapper and poet. He has released four poetry books (including Killernova), four hip-hop records and an acclaimed one man play, Since Ali Died. His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary award. He was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.
Musa has had several solo exhibitions of his woodcut prints, including All My Memories Are Mistranslations, and has performed at venues such as the Brixton Academy in London, Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City and The National Museum in Brasilia, Brazil.
He is based between Brooklyn and Borneo.
