David Malouf is a celebrated Australian author whose works are distinguished by their profound psychological insights and elegant prose. His novels delve into themes of identity, memory, and the intricate connections between past and present. Through his poetry and fiction, he captures the beauty and fragility of human experience, often exploring the deep resonance between people and the landscapes they inhabit. Malouf's literary contribution is marked by intellectual depth and a poetic sensibility that invites readers to contemplation.
Reimagining a pivotal narrative from Homer's "Iliad," the novel offers a fresh perspective on one of literature's most renowned stories. Award-winning author David Malouf, in his first novel in over ten years, delves into the themes of heroism, fate, and the human condition, breathing new life into classic characters and events. This retelling invites readers to explore the emotional depths and complexities of the original tale, enriching their understanding of its timeless significance.
A young man going off to war tries to make sense of his place in the world he is leaving; a composer's life plays itself out as a complex domestic cantata; an accident on a hunting trip speaks volumes, which its inarticulate victim never could; and a down-to-earth woman stubbornly tries to keep her feet on the ground at Ayers Rock. Malouf's men and women are together but curiously alone, looking for something they seem to have missed, or missed out on, in life. Powerfully rooted in the heat and the dust of the vast Australian continent, this is a heartbreakingly beautiful and richly satisfying collection by a master storyteller, one of the great writers of our time.
From the image of a small boy entranced by his mother's GI Escort, yet still hoping for the return of a father 'missing in action', to the portrait of an adult writer trying to piece together a defining image of his late father, these outstanding stories conjure up with sharp intensity the memories and events that make a man. These powerfully vivid stories range over more than a century of Australian life, from green tropical lushness to 'blacksoil country', from scrub and outback to city streets - evoking dark shadows beneath a bright sun, and lives shaped by the ghosts of history and the rhythms of unruly nature.
Born on a poor dairy farm in Queensland, Frank Harland's life is centred on
his great artistic gift, his passionate love for his father and four brothers
and his need to repossess, through a patch of land, his family's past.
Nach einem zweitägigen Gewaltritt gelangt der junge Polizeioffizier Michael Adair in tiefer Nacht zu einem Außenposten im australischen Busch. In einer heruntergekommenen Hütte halten drei Trooper den einzigen Überlebenden einer Banditengruppe gefangen: David Carney, ein Ire wie Adair, soll am nächsten Morgen von ihnen gehenkt werden. Nachdem sich die Wachsoldaten an das Lagerfeuer nach draußen in die Wildnis zurückgezogen haben, verstrickt ihr Vorgesetzter Adair Carney in ein stockendes Gespräch: Er versucht, dem Gefangenen Informationen über dessen mysteriösen Anführer zu entlocken. War er vielleicht sein Stiefbruder, dessen Spuren Adair auf dem fünften Kontinent wie besessen verfolgt? Doch die ebenso ersehnte wie gefürchtete Gewissheit will sich nicht einstellen, auch wenn in dieser Nacht zwischen den beiden ein seltsamer Schwebezustand der Intimität und unausgesprochenen Solidarität entsteht. Argwöhnisch beobachten die Trooper diese vertraute Beziehung zwischen dem Outlaw und dem Mann, der das Gesetz vertritt. Das, was sich in dieser einen Nacht abspielt, wird ihrer aller Leben verändern. »Ein großer australischer Romancier ist zu entdecken.« Andreas Isenschmid in der ›Weltwoche‹
A young boy caught in the conflict between early British settlers and native Aborigines witnesses the barbaric tensions that bedeviled the birth of a nation in this profound and mythical novel. A searing and magnificent picture of Australia at the moment of its foundation, with early settlers staking out their small patch of land and terrified by the harsh and alien continent. Focussing on the hostility between the early British inhabitants and the native Aborigines, "Remembering Bablyon" tells the tragic and compelling story of a boy who finds himself caught between the two worlds. Shot through with humour, and poetic intensity, Malouf's epic novel of epic scope is simple, compassionate and universal.
