Bird Deity by John Morrissey

David is a scout. For ten years he has plundered the ruins of an alien civilisation about which he knows nothing. Now he’s ready to go home,
a wealthy man. Except that everything seems to be slipping out of his control. His mentor Tom has vanished. Eliza and her baby are alone.

As David begins to question the choices he has made, he is visited by a researcher, who wants him to guide her on one last expedition to the rainswept wasteland of the plateau…

And he may yet lose everything, as he is drawn inexorably towards an encounter with the terrifying soul of this world.

John Morrissey’s Bird Deity is a novel like no other. At once disconcerting and eerily familiar, it’s a cosmic horror story about power, theft, love, loss, and destiny.

Stunning speculative fiction from the award-winning author of Firelight

About the Author:

John Morrissey is a Melbourne writer of Kalkadoon descent. He was the winner of the 2020 Indigenous Writers Mentorship and runner-up for the Nakata Brophy Prize in 2018. John’s debut Firelight won an Aurealis Award and a Queensland Literary Award, and in 2024 he was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist. Bird Deity is his first novel.

03 Feb 2026
 

Bird Deity by John Morrissey ISBN 9781922790781