by David Malouf (Author)
The year is 1827, and in a remote hut on the high plains of New South Wales, two strangers spend the night in talk. One, Carney, an illiterate Irishman, ex-convict and bushranger, is to be hanged at dawn. The other, Adair, also Irish, is the police officer who has been sent to supervise the hanging. As the night wears on, the two discover unexpected connections between their lives, and learn new truths. Outside the hut, Adair's troopers sit uneasily, reflecting on their own pasts and futures, waiting for the morning to come. With ironic humour and in prose of starkly evocative power, the novel moves between Australia and Ireland to explore questions of nature and justice, reason and un-reason, the workings of fate, and the small measure of freedom a man may claim in the face of death. A new novel by Malouf is a major event; THE CONVERSATIONS AT CURLOW CREEK will confirm him as one of the greatest novelists of our time.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 05 Sep 1996
ISBN 10: 0701165715
ISBN 13: 9780701165710
Book Overview: New novel by the author of REMEMBERING BABYLON, shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and the Irish Times Fiction Prize.
Prizes: Shortlisted for Book Data/ABA Book of the Year Award 1996.