The story follows Magnolia Din-Olden, an Afghan-Aboriginal lesbian woman from Alice Springs, on a surreal journey sparked by a folkloric encounter.
With echoes of Islamic legends, Aboriginal cosmology, and gothic fable, the novel explores spiritual loss, memory, and belonging.
Drawing on Kakmi’s multicultural heritage and deep ties to myth, it becomes a lyrical meditation on exile, storytelling, and the land itself.
"The book is inspired by both Arabian Nights and Ovid’s Metamorphoses,” he explains to SBS.
“I deliberately structured it with embedded tales, in a voice that echoes the gothic language of Richard Burton’s 19th-century translations.”
Magnolia, however, is more than a mythic archetype. She’s a complex, contemporary woman negotiating race, gender, and spiritual rupture.
Kakmi was born on the island of Tenedos (Bozcaada) and migrated to Australia in 1971, and speaks candidly of his disconnection from both the Greek and Turkish diasporas in Australia, especially after facing homophobia from within those communities.
Dmetri Kakmi's The Woman in the Well"
“We have more in common than we think,” he says. “The land sings to us."
"That’s something I first learned from Aboriginal men in [Melbourne's inner-north suburb of] Northcote, sitting on cardboard boxes by Merri Creek. They welcomed me when no one else did.”
The Woman in the Well is available now in print and ebook formats in bookstores across Australia and internationally.
Author Dmetri Kakmi at Melbourne's SBS studios / SBS Greek: Anastasia Rallis
