The Landscape of Desire
Kevin Rabalais
'A bold performance. Lyrical, precise, mysterious. The retelling of a familiar story that gets less and less familiar as we read.'
David MaloufKevin Rabalais is a very fine new writer. Reading his work put me in mind of a young Michael Ondaatje — daring, musical, intelligent and out on the edge.
Colum McCann'A truly remarkable achievement.'
Alex MillerSeveral months have passed since the legendary explorers Burke and Wills disappeared into the desert and their whereabouts remain a mystery. Now, a search party has assembled to rescue them. Meanwhile, two other men are wandering lost in the outback: one on the verge of reaching safety; the other, broken and trapped at the heart of the continent with an Aboriginal tribe as his only hope of survival. And back in the city an actress, star of the stage in Melbourne and Sydney, longs for the return of Burke and Wills for personal reasons that will only gradually become apparent.
Loosely based on the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition, The Landscape of Desire re-imagines the lives of the key players in this historic event, and weaves them into a narrative that spans continents and decades. Written in mesmerizing prose, The Landscape of Desire slowly yields up its own secrets.
With echoes of Heart of Darkness and The English Patient, it is a stunning debut novel of love and identity, desire and death, set in rapidly changing yet still unknown Australia.
'With cool authority Kevin Rabalais decants the heady brew of sexual repression and personal ambition that fueled the Victorian mania for expedition. Time is fluid and as lethal as the landscape in this richly detailed, affecting, and elegiac novel.'
Valerie Martin' It will reward anyone who enjoys the use of fact has a basis for well-wrought, poetic fiction. With its balance of elegant language, plot-driven action, contemplation and thematic seriousness, it is a very likely feature on 2008 literary awards shortlists.'
Max Oliver (Australian Bookseller & Publisher)'An extraordinary feat of dexterity and imagination.'
Claire Sutherland (Herald Sun)'This is a beautiful story, intensely evocative, with long-buried secrets gradually, tantalisingly revealed.'
Mary Ann Elliott (Toowomba Chronicle )'The Landscape of Desire has a cinematic quality.'
Simon Caterson (The Age)'This is a brilliant, ambitious novel by a fine new writer.'
(The Big Issue)'Author Kevin Rabalais' has written a remarkable debut novel in which he has imbued the figures with thought and feeling, rounding and colouring them so they no longer stare flatly at us, but become flesh and blood.'
Natasha Mirosch (Courier Mail)'The Landscape of Desire is an assured and forceful novel; an exquisite book that, once you've begun reading it, you'll find it very hard to drag yourself away from.'
Diane Stubbings (Canberra Times)'Landscape of Desire is a stunning debut and an impressive attempt to give our colonial history some mythic resonance ... nearly brilliant.'
Mary Vernon (Townsville Bulletin)Kevin Rabalais
Kevin Rabalais grew up in New Orleans and now lives in Melbourne. He is coeditor of Novel Voices (Writer’s Digest Books, 2003), conversations with award winning American writers. His work has appeared in the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Weekend Australian, the Wellington Dominion-Post, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and in numerous literary journals, including Tin House, Brick and The Kenyon Review.
Extent: 288
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (13): 9781921215681
RRP: $29.95
Pub date: March 2008
World
Rights sold:Audio (Louis Braille Audio)
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