12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Underlining.

This remarkable book combines autobiography with a subtle, almost painterly sense of how the objects we surround ourselves and the places we live build up our private maps of reality and shape our personal mythologies.

David Malouf begins by describing, in lovingly evocative detail, the house in Brisbane where he was born and grew up, moving from room to room, always relating the smallest items to the life he remembers and his widening perception of the world.

He moves on to describe life in the Tuscan village where he lived and the arrival of an Australian Television crew; reflecting on his first visit to India, he touches on the problems of interpreting and evaluating unfamiliar places. He recalls a traumatic wartime journey with his father from Brisbane to Sydney in Australia.

Funny, humane and beautifully written, this is a unique and extraordinary essay in autobiography. (publisher blurb)