Book description
Superb and surprising new fiction is found in this major new
collection from the Australian master.
A man named Huebler decides to photograph everyone alive. A suburban
father perches in his son's tree house to spy on his friends. A
dentist recognises his estranged wife in a famous painting. 'The
Seduction of My Sister' tells of the increasingly bizarre events
involving a boy and his sister when a new family moves in across the
street. And in 'Camouflage', Eric Banerjee, an unassuming Adelaide
piano tuner, is sent north to the centre of Australia in 1943 to make
his contribution to the war effort.
It is clear in all these remarkable stories that Murray Bail -
already celebrated for his novels - has also extended the manifold
possibilities of short fiction. Each of his stories creates a strange
and fascinating new world, and none of them is easily forgotten.
Bail's work in this collection is deft, angular, and very
entertaining; the mastery of his art is fully revealed with wry humour
and haunting power.
Murray Bail was born in Adelaide in 1941. He is the author of four
novels and two collections of short stories. Harvill Secker published
his
Notebooks
in 2005. His novel
Eucalyptus
was awarded the 1999 Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Miles Franklin
Literary Award.
