It was first published in 1994 under the pseudonym Helen Demidenko, and won the Miles Franklin Award the following year, before becoming the subject of a major Australian literary controversy about the author's false claims of Ukrainian ethnicity.
It was first published in 1994, and won the Miles Franklin Award the following year, before becoming the subject of a major Australian literary controversy. Darville wrote the book under the pseudonym Helen Demidenko, and at the time of its publication represented herself as being of Ukrainian ethnicity.