The Conversations at Curlow Creek

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. 240 pp. Author tour. 20,000 print.


From the Hardcover edition.

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.