The Day We Had Hitler Home

First UK edition. 8vo. Pp. x, 351, [2 (publisher's adverts)]. Violet cloth boards, lettered in silver to spine; butter-yellow endpapers. First edition in hardback. Originally published in wraps by Picador Pan Macmillan, Sydney, in 2000.

Author's ninth novel, dedicated to Paul Keating – Australian Prime Minister (1991–1996) – "for the magnificent achievement of his Native Title Act (1993)." The landmark law, enshrining Indigenous land rights, was the Keating government's signature legislation. Winner of the 2001 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Shortlisted for the 2001 Miles Franklin Award, which Hall won on two previous occasions, once for Just Relations in 1982 and subsequently for The Grisly Wife in 1994.

The year is 1919. At a remote fishing port in Australia, a soldier blinded by gas stumbles off the troop ship and into the homecoming celebrations. But it is not his home: gas blisters in his throat stop him telling anyone that he is German, private first class of the Sixteenth Bavarian Infantry, reserve Division, and that his name is Adolf Hitler. Author's concluding volume to his seven-part metaphorical history of Australia began in 1988 with Captivity Captive.