Author shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2011.
April 2011 Guest Editor Lesley Lokko on David Malouf...
For the most poetic, empathetic glimpses into the minds of men, the Australian, part-Lebanese, part-Jewish writer who’s now in his seventies is absolutely top of my list. Remembering Babylon, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker, is one of my all-time favourite books. It’s the story of a young castaway who is taken in by an Aboriginal clan and who stumbles across a European settlement by chance. It’s the story of an isolated community, full of prejudice and suspicion, and yet capable of great love and tenderness. Magical, in a word. Like the best fiction, Malouf showed me a world I knew nothing about and inspired me to do the same.
A searing and magnificent picture of Australia at the moment of its foundation, with early settlers staking out their small patch of land and terrified by the harsh and alien continent. Focussing on the hostility between the early British inhabitants and the native Aborigines, Remembering Bablyon tells the tragic and compelling story of a boy who finds himself caught between the two worlds. Shot through with humour, and poetic intensity, Malouf's epic novel of epic scope is simple, compassionate and universal.
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