David Malouf—winner of the inaugural Australia–Asia Literary Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Prix Femina Étranger and the Los Angeles Times Book Award—is the author of, among other works, Remembering Babylon, An Imaginary Life and The Conversations at Curlow Creek. He lives in Australia.
Praise for David Malouf and Ransom
“Impressive. . . . That this tender novel lingers so long and
hauntingly in the mind is a testament both to Malouf’s poetry and
to his reverence for the endless power of myth.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“An eloquent and deeply moving tale of war, kingship, fatherhood,
our common mortal lot, and—not incidentally—the enduring power of a
good story. . . . Every sentence sings.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Subtle and extremely moving. . . . Highly inventive. . .
. Ransom is a rich meditation on literary genre. . . .
Embroidered with imaginative details that often reanimate familiar
elements of the epic. . . . Like Euripides, Malouf has scrutinized
the vast fabric of Homer’s story, looking for open spaces in the
weave to insert his own design.”
—The New Yorker
“Thrillingly profound. . . . Malouf’s prose feels timeless—lyric
and direct in ways that recall the source material yet seem wholly
contemporary.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“The ‘matter of Troy’ has provided the world with timeless examples
of heroism, nobility, cleverness and tragic destiny. In Ransom,
Malouf adds to this great tradition. . . . Ransom returns again and
again to the fundamental human need for story and
storytelling.”
—The Washington Post
“Malouf is at once powerful and tender.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A writer with great imaginative powers and a gift for acute
psychological characterization.”
—Boston Globe
“Malouf may fairly be called Australia’s greatest novelist, and the
reasons why are all here, in an economical package—the penetration
of his mind into hearts and motivations; the limpid, lucid prose;
the bracing immediacy of the story, the art of his artlessness. A
simple tale, cobbled from a few lines of an ancient text, but
Malouf brings Achilles and Priam and the wagon driver to turbulent
life. . . . A remarkable feat.”
—The Oregonian
“Exquisite. . . . Lovely and moving. . . . Malouf doesn’t
exploit Homer’s Iliad; he fully respects its majesty and at the
same time fulfills his own deep need to link the distant past to
the terrors of the present. Ransom is a joy to read.”
—Providence Journal-Bulletin
“Vivid. . . . Priam’s character [has] a warmth and immediacy that
reflects Malouf’s skill for animating historical figures.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Remarkable. . . . Highly evocative. . . . That [Malouf] is able to
cut such an epic tale down to size (and in the process make it his
own) is truly a testament to his gift as a novelist.”
—Sacramento Book Review
“[A] lithe, graceful and deeply moving tale. . . . These pages of
Ransom are nothing short of magical. Malouf’s prose is delicate,
marvellously alert to the natural world and endowed with a quality
that has one name only: wisdom.”
—The Sydney Morning Herald
“[Malouf is] a storyteller of achievement, for whom simple things
gracefully become totems for deeper thought.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Lyrical, witty, gentle, this is above all a story of
transformation. . . . Immensely moving.”
—The Independent (London)
“Though Malouf’s sparingly deployed details, vigorous language, and
sly wit humanize these tragic heroes, the story is unmistakably
epic and certainly the stuff of legend.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Ask a Question About this Product More... |