The first definitive study of this major Australian writer.
This book examines Christopher Koch's novels and their genesis through the events that have shaped them and the writers who have influenced him. It is the first definitive study of Koch, who is now recognised as a great writer - profound, original, enduring.
Koch took up painting in his youth, and was trained in black-and-white drawing. He then began writing verse, publishing first in 'The Bulletin'. When he turned to the novel, his gift for vivid imagery and his tendency to lyricism continued to stamp his prose.
A writer of international stature, Koch has twice been recipient of the Miles Franklin Award. His roots probe deep in Australia's past: he is descended from celebrated architects, sea-captains, dispossessed gentry and convicts.
Koch writes lucidly and evocatively. Beneath his words is a wealth of allusion and mythological, metaphysical and philosophical depth. He has conjured places and times with vitality and truth: Sydney in the sixties; colonial Tasmania - hop-fields, oast-houses and the ring of convict chains; Singapore's Boat Quay, steamy with the mixed smells of sandalwood-smoke and foetid water; or paddy-fields peacefully light-green with newly-planted rice in Cambodia's Year Zero.
The book deals with all of Koch's novels and his essays: 'The Boys In The Island', 'Across The Sea Wall', 'The Year Of Living Dangerously', 'The Doubleman', 'Crossing The Gap: Memories And Reflections', 'Highways To A War', 'Out Of Ireland', and 'The Many-Coloured Land: A Return To Ireland'.
