The Doubleman


Book Description

'How do we pierce the skin? Did they teach you that at University?' Clive Broderick, guitar-teacher and occultist - the Doubleman of the title of this acclaimed novel - is speaking of power, and of a realm beyond reality. this is a fable of the sixties, when shared belief-systems crumbled, and the spiritual bazaars of today opened up. Christopher Koch's theme is illusion; and all his characters are bound by it. the Rymers are an electric folk group enjoying mounting success in Sydney. their producer, Richard Miller, came under Broderick's spell during his youth in tasmania; so did the guitarists Brady and Burr. Now, years after his death, Broderick's presence remains with all three. through his disciple, Burr, it will lead to nightmare. tHE DOUBLEMAN was winner of the 1985 Miles Franklin Award. 'Why have I not heard of Koch before, I wonder? He has an extraordinary power of evoking place, and I feel now that tasmania is part of my memory.' - Graham Greene 'As universal in its impact as the myth and music of Orpheus ... a tour-de-force' - David Rowbotham, Brisbane Courier Mail 'A classy writer, deploying a kind of dangerous power with a delicate perception' - Norman Shrapnel, Guardian




The Double Man


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The Double Man


Book Description




The Double Man (Large Print)


Book Description

A face he recognizes. Is it a wanted murderer? Or is Widow seeing double?Tired of people, Jack Widow takes a break. He camps out in the Alaskan wilderness on Kodiak Island, relying on nothing but his survival skills. It's everything he wanted: quiet terrain, plenty of fishing, sleeping out under the stars, and no people. It seemed like the perfect vacation until Widow meets a man with a familiar face.He recognizes a total stranger, but from where? The stranger goes by one name but has the face of another.In this riveting new thriller by International Bestseller Scott Blade, Widow investigates a man who is either a cursed lookalike or a deadly criminal.




Water from the Moon


Book Description

Author of six novels, Christopher John Koch (born in 1932) is one of Australia's leading novelists who enjoys worldwide recognition. Koch's writing has its finger on the pulse of today's changing society. Not only does his work fall within a universal stream but it also stands out as a production of its own, built like a puzzle with distinct pieces. Through fiction, Koch explores other genres - the fairy tale, drama, poetry - to the point of producing multi-faceted works which challenge classification. In spite of the constant renewal of his settings for action, one notices the presence of a main thread which runs through Koch's fiction: the antipodean and ambiguous relationship between illusion and reality. This theoretically-informed monograph provides a book-by-book analysis of the novelist's ouvre and gives a full picture of his Weltanschauung. It is valuable reference for scholars in Australian Studies, as well as those researching postcolonial, psychoanalytic and literary theories.




Twentieth Century Literature in English


Book Description

The Present Anthology Of Critical Essays On Twentieth Century English Literature Seeks To Put Together The Body Of Writing Criticism, Poetry, Fiction, Short-Story, In England, America, Australia, Africa And India In The Present Age, To Discover How, Despite Its Seeming Divergence And Dissimilarities, It Falls Into A Broad Pattern With Regard To The Choice Of Themes And Formal Strategies.The Essays Included Are Theoretical, Com¬Parative And Exigetical, Expounding Move¬Ments Like Modernism And Post-Modernism; Critical Perspectives Like The Scientifico-Psychological Approach And Its Practical Application, And Critiques Of T.S. Eliot, Thomas Hardy, E.M. Forster, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, G.B. Shaw, Harold Pinter, Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Wole Soyinka, Manohar Malgonkar, Nayantara Sahgal, C.J. Koch And Frank Moorhouse.The Anthology Reveals The Family Re¬Semblance In Twentieth Century English Literature Irrespective Of Geographic And Cultural Barriers, Reinforcing The View That In The Global Village That The World Has Become, Literature In English All Over The World In The Modern Context Has Come To Assume The Form Of A Community-Discourse.




The Harbour


Book Description

‘The finest harbour deserves the finest book … A colourful, fascinating and enduring account of the greatest waterway in the hemisphere.’Simon Winchester ‘This book is a joy to read. And essential for anyone who loves Sydney Harbour ... And who doesn’t?’Ken Done In the bestselling tradition of Peter Ackroyd's The Thames, a celebration of one of the world’s great waterways. Everyone knows Sydney Harbour. At least, we think we do. Everyone can see the harbour, whether we have ever been to Sydney or not. By as little as a word or two, the harbour floats into our mind’s eye. The Bridge. The Opera House. Fireworks on New Year’s Eve. When we see those images, we feel a sense of belonging. No matter who we are or where we’re from, we see the harbour and we feel good. In this beautiful, authoritative and meditative journey, Scott Bevan takes us from cove to cove, by kayak, yacht and barge to gather the harbour’s stories, past and present, from boat builders, ship captains and fishermen to artists, divers, historians and environmentalists, from signs of ancient life to the submarine invasion by the Japanese and the natural beauty that inspires people every day. This is the ultimate story of Sydney Harbour – a city’s heart and a country's soul.







Highways to a War


Book Description

“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocation of recent history.”—The New York Times Ray Barton travels to war-ravaged Southeast Asia to search for his missing friend Michael Langford, a brilliant, risk-taking combat photographer who was stolen into Khmer Rouge Cambodia on a mysterious mission and disappeared. The search illuminates Langford’s heroism, his fierce loyalties, and the personal highways he has traveled to war. Langford’s empathy for the brave but poorly commanded Cambodian troops and his love for a young Cambodian woman have led him in the end to put down the camera and take up the gun in a foreign struggle he had made his own. Koch richly evokes Indochina—from the deceptively tranquil rice paddies of South Vietnam to the corrupt, doomed pink-and-white city of Phnom Penh. Highways to a War is a story of intense relationships forged in a dangerous and hallucinatory land that continues to haunt the American soul. “An absorbing, deeply moving . . . tale of love and heroism. . . . The evocation of the Cambodian landscape . . . is truly haunting.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highways to a War ranks among the best of the . . . literature that has come out of the agony of the wars in Southeast Asia.”—The Orlando Sentinel




A Certain Style


Book Description

Beatrice Davis, 1909-1992, was general editor at Angus and Robertson the main Australian publishing company from 1937 to 1973. There she discovered and published such writers as Thea Astley, Miles Franklin, Patricia Wrightson, Xavier Herbert and Hal Porter becoming a literary tastemaker in the process. A central figure in Australian literature – ‘respected, feared, courted and berated.’ Originally published to great acclaim in 2001, A Certain Style introduced this stylish and formidable woman to thousands of readers and told a history of books and publishing in twentieth-century Australia. This reissue has a new introduction and updates throughout as the author presents a compelling account of a contradictory woman and her times.