The Revisionists: A thrilling and utterly compelling novel from the author of Tiny Uncertain Miracles, perfect for readers of Sarah Winman and Heat
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Gripping, propulsive and intelligent, The Revisionists is a tour de force, an absorbing, unputdownable novel about ambition - and how we curate our own stories and rescript our memories in order to survive.
'Her literary trajectory is exponential; her first two novels were brilliant, but The Revisionists is a masterpiece ... Powerful, intelligent and beautifully written, it's likely to attain future status as a culturally-resonant literary classic.' ArtsHub
Upper East Side, Manhattan, 2023: Christine Campbell, former journalist, turns on the television to watch a documentary paying homage to her Pulitzer Prize–shortlisted coverage of the unrest in 1999 in the North Caucasus. She is newly widowed, wealthy and attempting to write a memoir celebrating her bold life and significant achievements in writing about the silencing of women during conflict.
But truth has a way of resurfacing, even when buried deep beneath money, memory and reinvention. When Dr Frankie Pearson, Christine's oldest - and estranged - friend, knocks on her door, the pair must reconcile their memories and come to terms with the far-reaching and disastrous decisions they both made over twenty years ago. What really happened in that small mountain village in Dagestan in the dying days of the millennium, while Christine was hellbent on getting the scoop of a lifetime?
An elegant, thrilling and brilliantly compelling novel of the consequences of the conflict between a person's principles and their desire for acclaim, The Revisionists examines the malleability of memory and the slippery nature of the truth - and the lengths that people will go to to avoid facing both.
'A beautifully crafted story ... the immense detail and beauty in the writing create an altogether genuine setting for the reader to become absorbed in. A powerful examination of truth, memory and ambition ... a sophisticated novel that both overtly and subtly turns the spotlight on the oft-overlooked keepers of knowledge: women.' Books+Publishing
A riveting tale of adventure and ambition gone wrong, beautifully written, which poses profound questions about the relationship between memory and truth.' Deborah Snow, former associate editor, Sydney Morning Herald, author of The Siege
'A distinctive writer of beauty and insight' Julia Baird, Bright Shining
'A remarkable novel, exhilarating and intelligent' Eleanor Limprecht, The Passengers
'Full of beautiful prose ... it is a powerful meditation on regret and mistakes' Jacqueline Maley, Lonely Mouth
'A compelling, tightly plotted examination of hubris and its consequences. The narrative skips to a beat of often breathtaking language.' Angela O'Keefe, The Sitter
Customer Reviews
Memory lane
4.5 stars
The author is a West Australian emergency physician and writer. This is her third novel.
It’s 2023. Primary protagonist Christine is an Australian journalist (former journalist actually) in her early 50s living alone in a luxury New York high rise apartment following the death of her hedge fund manager hubby. (She’s not short of a bob, in other words.)
In the early 2000s, she was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for an article she published about the plight of women in rural Dagestan (It’s in the Russian Caucasus, next door to Chechnya. Google it) during the civil war there in the late 1990s. (It wasn’t called a civil war officially, I don’t think, but it certainly looked like one to me.)
Our gal didn’t win a Pulitzer, but was a minor celebrity for a while. She gave up journalism subsequently, or it gave up on her, but was recently interviewed for a TV documentary about women who have written “powerfully” about the plight of other women, yada, yada.
Christine thought her interview went well. Frankie, her old pal from high school who became a doctor and persuaded our gal to help out at the clinic she was running in Dagestan, disagrees. They’ve been estranged for 20 years as result of what happened there, more specifically Christine’s reporting of those events. After seeing the doco, Frankie lobs up on Christine’s doorstep out of the blue.
There follows a nuanced exploration of friendship, the horror of war, guilt and the vagaries of memory. The third person narrative shuttles between the West Australian wheat belt where Christine was raised, boarding school in Perth, Dagestan in the late 1990s, and contemporary NYC. The prose is finely crafted, the character development superb.
Bottom line
I’m just a crusty old white bloke, but I was impressed.
Confusing
Disappointing story line