Conversations At Curlow Creek - Hardcover

Malouf, David

3.62

559 ratings by Goodreads

9780701165710: Conversations At Curlow Creek

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701165715 ISBN 13: 9780701165710

Publisher: Trafalgar Square, 1996

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Synopsis A new work of fiction by the author of Remembering Babylon. It is 1827, and, in a remote hut high on the plains of New South Wales, two strangers spend the night in talk. One, an illiterate Irishman, and ex-convict and bushranger, is to be hanged at dawn. The other is the police officer who has been sent to supervise the hanging. As the night wears on, the two men share memories and uncover unlikely connections between their lives. Set in Australia in 1827, The Conversations at Curlow Creek is an extraordinary exploration of nature and justice, of the workings of fate, of intimacy, compassion, and duty. Two men talk through the night - a convict waiting to be hanged at dawn and the officer in charge of the hanging - revealing their pasts, discovering unlikely connections between their lives. And in the precise, evocative language and with the acute perception we have come to expect from Malouf, the conversation between these two dissimilar men goes far beyond the details of their lives to express both the isolation of the individual and the experiences, shared in silence, that unite us all

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Review:

It is only natural for our eyes to wander into the circumstances of others and either count our blessings or rail at the injustice of fate. How we deal with the fate dealt us is the subject of David Malouf's shadowy novel. Having grown up in the same household, but under different circumstances, two foster-brothers respond to fate in radically different ways and with radically different results. While one takes kismet under his horsewhip, the other dares not rebel. This haunting replay of Greek tragedy will reverberate in your mind long after the last page is turned, for as with these men, fate is our habitat.

From the Back Cover:

"Beyond the futility of the law and the loneliness of the human condition, Malouf distils a triumphant beauty.... [His] prose, rich and mellifluous, conjures myth and memory to climax in an ending as elusive as the apparent reversal of the moon above an alien night." -The Globe and Mail

"Enthralling... Malouf pulls from this tightly restricted set of circumstances a far-ranging tale of high emotion that unfolds in a series of rhapsodic passages." -NOW

"Malouf has created a journey into human truth.... He strips away illusions and deference and allows two men to find common humanity against the vastness of a menacing and unbridled environment. In rich, poetic language, he turns a sporadic night-long conversation ... into a poignant and searing summation of man's place in the universe." -Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"Compelling and powerful.... This is a terse, intelligent and rewarding work that does not slip easily from the reader's mind." -Hamilton Spectator

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