The postcolonial historical novel : realism allegory and the representation of contested pasts The contemporary postcolonial historical novel: beyond anti realism Allegorical realism: toward a poetics of the postcolonial historical novel Typification and frontier violence: Kate Grenvilles The secret river The gender of settler realism: Fiona Kidmans The captive wife Deterritorializing allegorical realism: Witi Ihimaeras The Trowenna Sea Aesthetics of absent causality: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Half of a yellow sun Spectres of civil war trauma: Chris Abanis Song for night Metafictional realism and the dialectic of allegory: Richard Flanagans Goulds book of fish Conclusion: The historical novel from postcolonial reconciliation to environmental crisis