'Is it history that tells us who we are? Or is it the story we tell ourselves . that defines who we are?' (The Australian) A profound and moving story about the land, the past, exile and acceptance from the award-winning author of Journey to the Stone Country.
It is the story of Max Otto, an elderly German academic. After the death of his much-loved wife and his recognition that he will never write the great study of history that was to be his life's crowning work, Max believes his life is all but over. Everything changes, though, when his valedictory lecture is challenged by Professor Vita McLelland, a feisty young Australian Aboriginal academic visiting Germany. Their meeting and growing friendship sets Max on a journey that would have seemed unthinkable just a few short weeks earlier.
When, at Vita's invitation, Max travels to Australia, he forms a deep friendship with her uncle, Aboriginal elder Dougald Gnapun. It is a friendship that not only gives new meaning and purpose to Max, but which teaches him the profound importance of truth-telling in reconciliation with his own and his country's past.
Following Alex Miller's Miles Franklin-winning Journey to the Stone Country, Landscape of Farewell is a wise and grave novel of power, beauty and truth.
Praise for Alex Miller
'[The Ancestor Game] is a wonderful novel of stunning intricacy and great beauty.' - Michael Ondaatje
'Miller is a master storyteller.' - Drusilla Modjeska
Author bio:
Alex Miller is twice winner of Australia's premier literary prize, The Miles Franklin Literary Award, first in 1993 for The Ancestor Game and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He is also an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, in 1993 for The Ancestor Game. His fifth novel, Conditions of Faith, won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the 2001 New South Wales Premier's Awards. In 2011 he won this award a second time with his most recent novel Lovesong. Lovesong also won the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Awards, the Age Book of the Year Award and the Age Fiction Prize for 2011. In 2007 Landscape of Farewell was published to wide critical acclaim and in 2008 won the Chinese Annual Foreign Novels 21st Century Award for Best Novel and the Manning Clark Medal for an outstanding contribution to Australian cultural life. It was also short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the ALS Gold Medal and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Alex is published internationally and widely in translation. Autumn Laing is his tenth novel.
Winner of the Manning Clark House National Cultural Award 2008
Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2008
Shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (NSW Premier's Literary Awards) 2008
Shortlisted for the 2008 ALS Gold Medal
Shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Asia-Pacific Region, Best Book)
Longlisted for the WA Premier's Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008 0
Awards
Winner, Melbourne Prize for Literature 2012
Winner of the Manning Clark House National Cultural Award 2008
Winner Weishanhu Award for Best Foreign Novel in the 21st century (People's Literature Publishing House, China) 2008
Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2008
Shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (NSW Premier's Literary Awards) 2008
Shortlisted for the 2008 ALS Gold Medal
Shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Asia-Pacific Region, Best Book)
Longlisted for the WA Premier's Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008
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