The Complete Stories
an Australian literary anthology
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIA-ASIA LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD
In these thirty-one stories David Malouf’s imagination inhabits shocking violence, quick humour, appealing warmth and harsh cruelty with equal intensity. He shares tales of bookish boys, taciturn men and intimate stories of men and women looking for something they seem to have missed, or missed out on.
A comprehensive compilation of David’s shorter work, the stories are set in the stark and challenging Australian interior and the more lush and mysterious coastal enclaves; others are set in Australia's past.
The youthful dreams, physical desires and mental despair of Malouf's richly varied characters as they explore their place in the world are always moving and universal.
Readers won't want to skim a single page of the stories in this epic collection, a few of which are novella length. Together, they represent a quarter-century of a formidable craftsman's career.
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‘Australia’s finest writer’ MIRIAM COSIC, THE AUSTRALIAN
‘Malouf is a lyrical story-writer.’ MALCOLM KNOX, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
‘A richly imagistic writer, philosophical and literary in the best sense.’ WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
‘A first-rate writer-a sensitive historian of the spirit.’ WALL STREET JOURNAL
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Malouf, who won the Commonwealth Prize for his novel The Great World, is a master storyteller whose imagination inhabits shocking violence, quick humor, appealing warmth and harsh cruelty with equal intensity. Three previous collections (Dream Stuff, etc.) and a section of new work comprise this engrossing compilation of the Australian writer's shorter work. Several stories are rooted in that continent's hardscrabble interior and coastal enclaves; others are set in Australia's past. The youthful dreams, physical desires and psychic despair of Malouf's richly varied characters, however, are wholly universal. Older standouts include "The Prowler," about suburban hysteria in the wake of an omnipresent rapist's ability to evade capture, and "Lone Pine," among the collection's shortest stories but packing a horrific punch, in which a carefree holiday couple is murdered by a crazed young man. New stories include "The Valley of Lagoons," about a young man's searing coming-of-age when he's allowed to join his peers on a tradition-rich hunt, and "Elsewhere," which follows a sad rural father who ventures from the country to Sydney for his estranged daughter's funeral. Readers won't want to skim a single page of the 31 stories in this epic collection, a few of which are novella length. Together, they represent a quarter-century of a formidable craftsman's career.
