Two days after siblings Levi and Charlotte McAllister spread their mother Edith's ashes in Notley Fern Gorge, she returns to life.

Whilst Charlotte grows increasingly paranoid that the same thing may happen to her, Levi resolves to build her a coffin strong enough so that she may not return after burial.

Levi, meanwhile, makes contact with Thurston Hough, an expert coffin maker, who claims to have killed a water rat whose pelt offers strange powers, granting confidence to those who possess it.

Hough reports that he cannot complete work on the coffin as the animals along the river have begun terrorising him, in retaliation over the Esk God's death.

The farm's manager, Allen Gibson, slowly descends into madness, eventually realising that he has been slaughtering the wombats, possessed by the cormorant's spirit.

Against his father's wishes, Levi, influenced by the pelt, travels to Notley Fern Gorge to complete the half-finished coffin.

Each chapter of the novel is written from a different character's perspective, ranging from first-person, third-person, epistolary, present and past tense.

[8] He wrote the novel from multiple perspectives in order to properly capture the wild environment of Tasmania and because he wanted each chapter to feel "fresh" and "exciting".

[10] Arnott was reading the memoir H is for Hawk whilst writing the novel; he noted that "its interrogation of grief, and the relationship between the author and her half-wild goshawk, left a heavy mark on my own work".

Bligh served as the inspiration for a character in the novel, while Arnott drew on King's experiences in Melaleuca while writing the chapters set on that island.

[4] The novel was first launched at Fullers Bookshop in Hobart, officially unveiled by Australian author Richard Flanagan.

[11] The front and back cover, designed by W. H. Chong,[12] was inspired by the c. 1936 colour lithograph Tasmania, the Wonderland by Harry Kelly,[13][14] which was hung on the wall near Arnott's desk while he was writing the novel.

[11] Sam Jordison, writing in The Guardian, believed that the novel was "solid, significant and emotionally resonant" and praised Arnott's description of the Tasmanian landscape.

However, he felt that the novel's structure was "ambitious" and believed that certain characters and chapters were "fleeting", criticising Arnott's strained attempts at humour.

[6] Sarah Dempster, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, commented that the novel "explores the sublime power of the Australian state at the bottom of the world".

[5] Jessie Nielson, writing in the Otago Daily Times, described it as a "finely built and realised first novel" and praised Arnott's "complicated yet tightly strategised" narrative.

Nielson praised Arnott's use of humour to relieve dark moments and felt that the characters each had "lovable, empathetic qualities".

[21] A reviewer for The Saturday Paper, noted comparisons between certain chapters of the novel and other literary works, such as Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and Stephen King's Firestarter.

The reviewer stated that "the finale isn’t entirely satisfying, dramatically or semantically, but the novel's playfulness and poetry make for a fresh and entertaining read".