Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921994
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Brilliant, witty, scathing, The Australian Ugliness is the classic postwar account of Australian society, how we live in the environments we create, and the consequences of our failure to think about how we live.
The Australian Ugliness: Text Classics
Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921994
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Brilliant, witty, scathing, The Australian Ugliness is the classic postwar account of Australian society, how we live in the environments we create, and the consequences of our failure to think about how we live.
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921994
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Brilliant, witty, scathing, The Australian Ugliness is the classic postwar account of Australian society, how we live in the environments we create, and the consequences of our failure to think about how we live.
The Australian Ugliness
Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921656220
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Fifty years after its first publication, Robin Boyd's bestselling The Australian Ugliness remains the definitive statement on how we live and think in the environments we create for ourselves. In it Boyd rallied against Australia's promotion of ornament, decorative approach to design and slavish imitation of all things American. 'The basis of the Australian ugliness,' he wrote, 'is an unwillingness to be committed on the level of ideas. In all the arts of living, in the shaping of all her artefacts, as in politics, Australia shuffles about vigorously in the middle - as she estimates the middle - of the road, picking up disconnected ideas wherever she finds them.' Boyd was a fierce critic, and an advocate of good design. He understood the significance of the connection between people and their dwellings, and argued passionately for a national architecture forged from a genuine Australian identity. His concerns are as important now, in an era of suburban sprawl and inner-city redevelopment, as they were half a century ago. Caustic and brilliant, The Australian Ugliness is a masterpiece that enables us to see our surroundings with fresh eyes. This handsome anniversary edition is complemented by Robin Boyd's original sketches for the book and a new afterword by major contemporary architects.
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921656220
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
Fifty years after its first publication, Robin Boyd's bestselling The Australian Ugliness remains the definitive statement on how we live and think in the environments we create for ourselves. In it Boyd rallied against Australia's promotion of ornament, decorative approach to design and slavish imitation of all things American. 'The basis of the Australian ugliness,' he wrote, 'is an unwillingness to be committed on the level of ideas. In all the arts of living, in the shaping of all her artefacts, as in politics, Australia shuffles about vigorously in the middle - as she estimates the middle - of the road, picking up disconnected ideas wherever she finds them.' Boyd was a fierce critic, and an advocate of good design. He understood the significance of the connection between people and their dwellings, and argued passionately for a national architecture forged from a genuine Australian identity. His concerns are as important now, in an era of suburban sprawl and inner-city redevelopment, as they were half a century ago. Caustic and brilliant, The Australian Ugliness is a masterpiece that enables us to see our surroundings with fresh eyes. This handsome anniversary edition is complemented by Robin Boyd's original sketches for the book and a new afterword by major contemporary architects.
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Author: Fergus Hume
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473378974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
This early work by Fergus Hume was originally published in 1886 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' is a tricky tale set in Australia and is Hume's most famous crime novel. Fergusson Wright Hume was born on 8th July 1859 in England, the second son of Dr. James Hume. The family migrated to New Zealand where Fergus was enrolled at Otago Boys' High School, and later continued his legal and literary studies at the University of Otago. Hume returned to England in 1888 where he resided in London for a few years until moving to the Essex countryside. There he published over 100 novels, mainly in the mystery fiction genre, though none had the success of his début work.
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473378974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
This early work by Fergus Hume was originally published in 1886 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' is a tricky tale set in Australia and is Hume's most famous crime novel. Fergusson Wright Hume was born on 8th July 1859 in England, the second son of Dr. James Hume. The family migrated to New Zealand where Fergus was enrolled at Otago Boys' High School, and later continued his legal and literary studies at the University of Otago. Hume returned to England in 1888 where he resided in London for a few years until moving to the Essex countryside. There he published over 100 novels, mainly in the mystery fiction genre, though none had the success of his début work.
A Lifetime on Clouds
Author: Gerald Murnane
Publisher: Melbourne : William Heinemann Australia
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
Publisher: Melbourne : William Heinemann Australia
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
The Even More Complete Book Of Australian Verse: Text Classics
Author: John Clarke
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921773
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 131
Book Description
Possibly the most important anthology ever published. The definitive collection featuring key works by such famous Australian poets as Gavin Milton, Arnold Wordsworth, Sylvia Blath, Very Manly Hopkins, R.A.C.V. Milne and Dylan Thompson.
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921773
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 131
Book Description
Possibly the most important anthology ever published. The definitive collection featuring key works by such famous Australian poets as Gavin Milton, Arnold Wordsworth, Sylvia Blath, Very Manly Hopkins, R.A.C.V. Milne and Dylan Thompson.
Down in the City
Author: Elizabeth Harrower
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1922148121
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
Esther Prescott has seen little of life outside her wealthy family's Rose Bay mansion, until flashy Stan Peterson comes roaring up the drive in his huge American car and barges into her life. Within a fortnight they are living in his Kings Cross flat. Moody and erratic, proud of his well-bred wife yet bitterly resentful of her privilege, Stan is involved with his former girlfriend and a series of shady business deals. Esther, innocent and desperate to please him, must endure his controlling ways. This story of a troubled and obsessive marriage, set against the backdrop of postwar Sydney, is devastating. First published in 1957, Down in the City announced Elizabeth Harrower as a major Australian writer. Elizabeth Harrower was born in Sydney in 1928 and moved to London in 1951. She travelled extensively and began to write fiction. Her first novel Down in the City was published in 1957, and was followed by The Long Prospect a year later. In 1959 she returned to Sydney where she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1960 she published The Catherine Wheel, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney. The Watch Tower appeared in 1966. No further novels were published until May 2014 when Harrower's 'lost' novel, In Certain Circles, was released. Her work is austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions about men and women. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia. Elizabeth Harrower died in Sydney on 7 July 2020 at the age of ninety-two. 'Down in the City marked the arrival of one of the sharpest authors of psychological fiction in Australian literature. Many of the things that happen in the novel are unpleasant, but are rendered with such intensity and psychological insight that the experience of reading about them is thrilling.' Australian 'a triumph from Text's project to recover forgotten Australian literature. Doused in melancholy and written from an accessible yet unnerving third-person perspective, Harrower's debut is a light read with weighty resonance.' Readings Bookshop
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1922148121
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
Esther Prescott has seen little of life outside her wealthy family's Rose Bay mansion, until flashy Stan Peterson comes roaring up the drive in his huge American car and barges into her life. Within a fortnight they are living in his Kings Cross flat. Moody and erratic, proud of his well-bred wife yet bitterly resentful of her privilege, Stan is involved with his former girlfriend and a series of shady business deals. Esther, innocent and desperate to please him, must endure his controlling ways. This story of a troubled and obsessive marriage, set against the backdrop of postwar Sydney, is devastating. First published in 1957, Down in the City announced Elizabeth Harrower as a major Australian writer. Elizabeth Harrower was born in Sydney in 1928 and moved to London in 1951. She travelled extensively and began to write fiction. Her first novel Down in the City was published in 1957, and was followed by The Long Prospect a year later. In 1959 she returned to Sydney where she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1960 she published The Catherine Wheel, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney. The Watch Tower appeared in 1966. No further novels were published until May 2014 when Harrower's 'lost' novel, In Certain Circles, was released. Her work is austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions about men and women. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia. Elizabeth Harrower died in Sydney on 7 July 2020 at the age of ninety-two. 'Down in the City marked the arrival of one of the sharpest authors of psychological fiction in Australian literature. Many of the things that happen in the novel are unpleasant, but are rendered with such intensity and psychological insight that the experience of reading about them is thrilling.' Australian 'a triumph from Text's project to recover forgotten Australian literature. Doused in melancholy and written from an accessible yet unnerving third-person perspective, Harrower's debut is a light read with weighty resonance.' Readings Bookshop
Our Magic Hour
Author: Jennifer Down
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1922253472
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
Audrey, Katy and Adam have been friends since high school—a decade of sneaky cigarettes, drunken misadventures on Melbourne backstreets, heart-to-hearts, in-jokes. But now Katy has gone. And without her, Audrey is thrown off balance: everything she thought she knew, everything she believed was true, is bent out of shape. Audrey’s family—her neurotic mother, her wayward teenage brother, her uptight suburban sister—are likely to fall apart. Her boyfriend, Nick, tries to hold their relationship together. And Audrey, caught in the middle, needs to find a reason to keep going when everything around her suddenly seems wrong. Evocative and exquisitely written, Our Magic Hour is a story of love, loss and discovery. Jennifer Down’s remarkable debut novel captures that moment when being young and invincible gives way to being open and vulnerable, when one terrible act changes a life forever. Jennifer Down is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in publications including the Age, Saturday Paper, Australian Book Review and Overland. She is one of Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year, 2017. Our Magic Hour, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. She lives in Melbourne. ‘Down’s evocation of Audrey’s grief is astute, perceptive and always convincing...It’s compelling writing.’ Australian ‘Intimate, raw and occasionally heartbreaking...I loved this book. Our Magic Hour is beautiful, gut-wrenching fiction and I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ Readings ‘Down has perfectly captured the vulnerability of youth...An incredibly intimate and tender novel about friendship, family and the transformative power of grief...It is easily one of the best Australian debuts I’ve read in a long time.’ Lip Mag 'Down’s novel is a story about very small things, that all add up to very big things about grief and friendship, love and death...Down has an impressive feel for the drama of the ordinary.’ Age/Sydney Morning Herald ‘Down has a reserved but beautiful prose...In its maturity and elegance, Our Magic Hour is a surprising and captivating debut novel. I have no doubt that Down will produce more quality writing in the future.’ Farrago ‘Down’s preoccupations are those of a young adult grappling with heavy issues, and she does so admirably...Our Magic Hour takes place in a lively, vivid Melbourne cityscape.’ Otago Daily Times ‘Striking, breathlessly written...Down’s clear and confident voice can play originally with language...An eloquent debut.’ WA Today ‘Down’s supple social realism has a vitality and energy to it...I’m sure that Down will be a fixture in the Australian lit scene for years to come.’ Lifted Brow ‘An impressive and emotionally sophisticated novel.’ Australian Book Review ‘Its depictions of the characters’ close friendships, and the personalised map of Melbourne it draws were so vivid and so true that I found myself almost longing for the same, despite the sadness at the heart of the book.’ Readings, Our Favourite Books of 2016 (so far) ‘Subtle and vividly observed, Our Magic Hour is a chronicle of early adulthood, with all its violent unions and passionate friendships...Down’s work [is] universally important.’ Overland ‘Down’s depiction of modern Melbourne is so familiar and evocative that I felt like I’d bumped into her characters at the cafe just the day before. For a book so infused with grief and longing, the sheer amount of love and depth of feeling in the novel made me yearn for everything and nothing all at once, and has stayed with me throughout the year.’ 2016 Staff Picks, Kill Your Darlings ‘If Helen Garner turned her razor-sharp eye to a new generation, Our Magic Hour might be the result. Down unravels the self-obsession and shortsightedness of youth with insight and affection, and turns the grit of modern twenty-something life—breakups, breakdowns, new jobs and new towns—into something profound, beautiful and hopeful.’ Junkee ‘Down writes equally of significant moments and unremarkable days with sparing beauty. Particularly adept at depiction of place, Down made me wonder if I hadn’t sat across from Audrey on the train to Redfern, bumped elbows with her at a bar in Bondi. Down is the kind of writer that you’ll be lucky to get on at the ground floor with, she is only going up.’ Concrete Playground ‘A raw novel about growing up in a world that never seems to make any sense...this novel manages to neatly capture that universal malaise felt by terrified millennials all over the world.’ Vice ‘A masterclass in elegant understatement...A very fine novel indeed—compassionate, clear-sighted and lovely.’ A Life in Books ‘Down’s prose is sharp and intimate, the characters flawed and achingly familiar. For a book about mourning, it’s not overly sentimental or indulgent. Instead, the characters’ grief is ugly and bewildering. Our Magic Hour is a compelling, authentic portrayal of loss, dislocation and the unsteadiness of young adult life.’ Good Reading
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1922253472
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
Audrey, Katy and Adam have been friends since high school—a decade of sneaky cigarettes, drunken misadventures on Melbourne backstreets, heart-to-hearts, in-jokes. But now Katy has gone. And without her, Audrey is thrown off balance: everything she thought she knew, everything she believed was true, is bent out of shape. Audrey’s family—her neurotic mother, her wayward teenage brother, her uptight suburban sister—are likely to fall apart. Her boyfriend, Nick, tries to hold their relationship together. And Audrey, caught in the middle, needs to find a reason to keep going when everything around her suddenly seems wrong. Evocative and exquisitely written, Our Magic Hour is a story of love, loss and discovery. Jennifer Down’s remarkable debut novel captures that moment when being young and invincible gives way to being open and vulnerable, when one terrible act changes a life forever. Jennifer Down is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in publications including the Age, Saturday Paper, Australian Book Review and Overland. She is one of Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year, 2017. Our Magic Hour, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. She lives in Melbourne. ‘Down’s evocation of Audrey’s grief is astute, perceptive and always convincing...It’s compelling writing.’ Australian ‘Intimate, raw and occasionally heartbreaking...I loved this book. Our Magic Hour is beautiful, gut-wrenching fiction and I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ Readings ‘Down has perfectly captured the vulnerability of youth...An incredibly intimate and tender novel about friendship, family and the transformative power of grief...It is easily one of the best Australian debuts I’ve read in a long time.’ Lip Mag 'Down’s novel is a story about very small things, that all add up to very big things about grief and friendship, love and death...Down has an impressive feel for the drama of the ordinary.’ Age/Sydney Morning Herald ‘Down has a reserved but beautiful prose...In its maturity and elegance, Our Magic Hour is a surprising and captivating debut novel. I have no doubt that Down will produce more quality writing in the future.’ Farrago ‘Down’s preoccupations are those of a young adult grappling with heavy issues, and she does so admirably...Our Magic Hour takes place in a lively, vivid Melbourne cityscape.’ Otago Daily Times ‘Striking, breathlessly written...Down’s clear and confident voice can play originally with language...An eloquent debut.’ WA Today ‘Down’s supple social realism has a vitality and energy to it...I’m sure that Down will be a fixture in the Australian lit scene for years to come.’ Lifted Brow ‘An impressive and emotionally sophisticated novel.’ Australian Book Review ‘Its depictions of the characters’ close friendships, and the personalised map of Melbourne it draws were so vivid and so true that I found myself almost longing for the same, despite the sadness at the heart of the book.’ Readings, Our Favourite Books of 2016 (so far) ‘Subtle and vividly observed, Our Magic Hour is a chronicle of early adulthood, with all its violent unions and passionate friendships...Down’s work [is] universally important.’ Overland ‘Down’s depiction of modern Melbourne is so familiar and evocative that I felt like I’d bumped into her characters at the cafe just the day before. For a book so infused with grief and longing, the sheer amount of love and depth of feeling in the novel made me yearn for everything and nothing all at once, and has stayed with me throughout the year.’ 2016 Staff Picks, Kill Your Darlings ‘If Helen Garner turned her razor-sharp eye to a new generation, Our Magic Hour might be the result. Down unravels the self-obsession and shortsightedness of youth with insight and affection, and turns the grit of modern twenty-something life—breakups, breakdowns, new jobs and new towns—into something profound, beautiful and hopeful.’ Junkee ‘Down writes equally of significant moments and unremarkable days with sparing beauty. Particularly adept at depiction of place, Down made me wonder if I hadn’t sat across from Audrey on the train to Redfern, bumped elbows with her at a bar in Bondi. Down is the kind of writer that you’ll be lucky to get on at the ground floor with, she is only going up.’ Concrete Playground ‘A raw novel about growing up in a world that never seems to make any sense...this novel manages to neatly capture that universal malaise felt by terrified millennials all over the world.’ Vice ‘A masterclass in elegant understatement...A very fine novel indeed—compassionate, clear-sighted and lovely.’ A Life in Books ‘Down’s prose is sharp and intimate, the characters flawed and achingly familiar. For a book about mourning, it’s not overly sentimental or indulgent. Instead, the characters’ grief is ugly and bewildering. Our Magic Hour is a compelling, authentic portrayal of loss, dislocation and the unsteadiness of young adult life.’ Good Reading
The Young Desire it
Author: Kenneth Mackenzie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity
Author: Brigid Rooney
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783088168
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
‘Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity’ investigates the interaction between suburbs and suburbia in a century-long series of Australian novels. It puts the often trenchantly anti-suburban rhetoric of fiction in dialogue with its evocative and imaginative rendering of suburban place and time. ‘Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity’ rethinks existing cultural debates about suburbia – in Australia and elsewhere – by putting novelistic representations of ‘suburbs’ (suburban interiors, homes, streets, forms and lives over time) in dialogue with the often negative idea of ‘suburbia’ in fiction as an amnesic and conformist cultural wasteland. ‘Suburban space, the novel and Australian modernity’ shows, in other words, how Australian novels dramatize the collision between the sensory terrain of the remembered suburb and the cultural critique of suburbia. It is through such contradictions that novels create resonant mental maps of place and time. Australian novels are a prism through which suburbs – as sites of everyday colonization, defined by successive waves of urban development – are able to be glimpsed sidelong.
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783088168
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
‘Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity’ investigates the interaction between suburbs and suburbia in a century-long series of Australian novels. It puts the often trenchantly anti-suburban rhetoric of fiction in dialogue with its evocative and imaginative rendering of suburban place and time. ‘Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity’ rethinks existing cultural debates about suburbia – in Australia and elsewhere – by putting novelistic representations of ‘suburbs’ (suburban interiors, homes, streets, forms and lives over time) in dialogue with the often negative idea of ‘suburbia’ in fiction as an amnesic and conformist cultural wasteland. ‘Suburban space, the novel and Australian modernity’ shows, in other words, how Australian novels dramatize the collision between the sensory terrain of the remembered suburb and the cultural critique of suburbia. It is through such contradictions that novels create resonant mental maps of place and time. Australian novels are a prism through which suburbs – as sites of everyday colonization, defined by successive waves of urban development – are able to be glimpsed sidelong.
The Plains: Text Classics
Author: Gerald Murnane
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921870
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
Winner of the Patrick White Literary Award, 1999. Introduction by Wayne Macauley. There is no book in Australian literature like The Plains. In the two decades since its first publication, this haunting novel has earned its status as a classic. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, ‘a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself’. Gerald Murnane was born in Melbourne in 1939. He has been a primary teacher, an editor and a university lecturer. His debut novel, Tamarisk Row (1974), was followed by ten other works of fiction, including The Plains and most recently Border Districts. In 1999 Murnane won the Patrick White Award and in 2009 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He lives in western Victoria. Wayne Macauley is the author of three novels, Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe (2004), Caravan Story (2007) and The Cook (2011), and the short fiction collection Other Stories (2010). He lives in Melbourne. ‘Murnane is quite simply one of the finest writers we have produced.’ Peter Craven ‘A distinguished, distinctive, unforgettable novel.’ Shirley Hazzard ‘Gerald Murnane is unquestionably one of the most original writers working in Australia today and The Plains is a fascinating and rewarding book...The writing is extraordinarily good, spare, austere, strong, often oddly moving.’ Australian ‘A piece of imaginative writing so remarkably sustained that it is a subject for meditation rather than a mere reading...In the depths and surfaces of this extraordinary fable you will see your inner self eerily reflected again and again.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘The Plains has that peculiar singularity that can make literature great.’ Ed Wright, Australian, Best Books of 2015 ‘Murnane touches on foibles and philosophy, plays with the makings of a fable or allegory, and all the while toys with tone, moving easily from earnest to deadpan to lightly ironic, a meld of Buster Keaton, the Kafka of the short stories, and Swift in A Modest Proposal...A provocative, delightful, diverting must-reread.’ STARRED Review, Kirkus Reviews ‘Known for its sharp yet defamiliarizing take on the landscape and an aesthetic of purity historically associated with it, The Plains is uniformly described as a masterpiece of Australian literature. Look closer, though, and it's a haunting nineteenth-century novel of colonial violence captured inside the machine's test-pattern image—a distant, unassuming house on the plains.’ BOMB
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921870
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
Winner of the Patrick White Literary Award, 1999. Introduction by Wayne Macauley. There is no book in Australian literature like The Plains. In the two decades since its first publication, this haunting novel has earned its status as a classic. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, ‘a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself’. Gerald Murnane was born in Melbourne in 1939. He has been a primary teacher, an editor and a university lecturer. His debut novel, Tamarisk Row (1974), was followed by ten other works of fiction, including The Plains and most recently Border Districts. In 1999 Murnane won the Patrick White Award and in 2009 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He lives in western Victoria. Wayne Macauley is the author of three novels, Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe (2004), Caravan Story (2007) and The Cook (2011), and the short fiction collection Other Stories (2010). He lives in Melbourne. ‘Murnane is quite simply one of the finest writers we have produced.’ Peter Craven ‘A distinguished, distinctive, unforgettable novel.’ Shirley Hazzard ‘Gerald Murnane is unquestionably one of the most original writers working in Australia today and The Plains is a fascinating and rewarding book...The writing is extraordinarily good, spare, austere, strong, often oddly moving.’ Australian ‘A piece of imaginative writing so remarkably sustained that it is a subject for meditation rather than a mere reading...In the depths and surfaces of this extraordinary fable you will see your inner self eerily reflected again and again.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘The Plains has that peculiar singularity that can make literature great.’ Ed Wright, Australian, Best Books of 2015 ‘Murnane touches on foibles and philosophy, plays with the makings of a fable or allegory, and all the while toys with tone, moving easily from earnest to deadpan to lightly ironic, a meld of Buster Keaton, the Kafka of the short stories, and Swift in A Modest Proposal...A provocative, delightful, diverting must-reread.’ STARRED Review, Kirkus Reviews ‘Known for its sharp yet defamiliarizing take on the landscape and an aesthetic of purity historically associated with it, The Plains is uniformly described as a masterpiece of Australian literature. Look closer, though, and it's a haunting nineteenth-century novel of colonial violence captured inside the machine's test-pattern image—a distant, unassuming house on the plains.’ BOMB