In 1629, the VOC ship Batavia was wrecked off the coast of the unknown Southland. Whilst history mainly recalls what happened afterwards - mutiny, murder and executions - two young survivors have almost completely vanished from the archives.

Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom were left behind as punishment at the mouth of the Murchison River, thousands of kilometres from civilisation. Everyone assumed they would die within a few weeks.

But they survived.

In Nova Hollandia, Rere Vermin follows the fate of the exiled men as they learn to live in one of the most inhospitable regions in the world. Amidst drought, hunger and an unfamiliar landscape, they meet Gara, a respected member of a local Aboriginal community. Thanks to his knowledge of the land, the water and the seasons, the two men are given a chance to survive in an environment that would otherwise have destroyed them.

What begins as a struggle for survival develops into a story of friendship, trust, cultural differences and the question of what it truly means to belong somewhere.

Based on one of the greatest mysteries in Australian history, this historical novel weaves together known facts with a compelling fictional reconstruction of what might have happened to the two Batavia survivors after they vanished from history.

Nova Hollandia is a compelling story of survival, identity, colonisation and the encounter between two completely different worlds on the edge of the known world.