데이비드 말로프가 우리의 문학 풍경을 형성했습니다. 여기 그의 필독서 7권입니다

The literary giant, who died this week, leaves behind a legacy that will be cherished for generations.

Australia lost one of its literary titans this week.

David Malouf died in hospital on Wednesday night, aged 92, following a “short, aggressive illness”. The loss of the Brisbane-born novelist, poet and essayist was immediately felt across the country, with many fellow writers remembering him as key in shaping contemporary Australian literature.

His career was long, varied and critically acclaimed, winning him honours such as the Miles Franklin Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Award, The Age Book of the Year and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Beginning in 1970 with a collection of poems, he went on to publish nine novels, many of which explored memory, the Australian landscape and male identity.

Whether you’re re-reading old favourites or delving into his work for the first time, here are seven must-read novels from the brilliant mind of Malouf.

Published in 1975, Johnno was Malouf’s debut novel. Told through the eyes of Dante, a studious boy growing up in Brisbane in the 1940s and ’50s, much of the story revolves around his complicated friendship with Johnno, a reckless and unruly boy, as they move from Brisbane Grammar School into adulthood.

Though it initially received mixed reviews, the semi-autobiographical novel was ultimately praised for its lyrical prose and the detail with which it captures a specific place and time (postwar Brisbane). It set up themes Malouf would go on to explore in many of his novels, namely the nature of memory and the pains of adolescence.

For his second novel, published in March 1978, Malouf took a leaf from the history books and transformed it into a bold work of fiction.

In the first century AD, famed Roman poet Ovid was banished to a remote village near the Black Sea. Malouf fictionalised this account, considering what would have happened to the renowned writer once he was surrounded by little but the natural landscape. Ovid experiences his own metamorphosis, connecting with the land around him and a “wild child” raised by wolves.

The novel’s nuanced exploration of exile – how it can operate as both a punishment and freedom – as well as its poetic written style made An Imaginary Life an instant classic.

A staple in Australian high school curriculums, Malouf’s 1982 novel brings three bird-lovers together in 1914 Queensland. Two are eventually called to the trenches of the Great War, sending them on an emotional journey through life, death and the destruction of both nature and innocence.

Highlighting the needless destruction of war and its stark contrast to the idyllic shores of the Queensland coast, Fly Away Peter is a raw, emotional read. It was named The Age Book of the Year in 1982 and won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 1983. It was even adapted into an opera by Sydney Chamber Opera in 2015.

This 1990 novel was arguably one of Malouf’s most ambitious. Spanning 70 years, The Great World chronicles the lives of Australians Digger and Vic as they navigate wars, imprisonment and friendship.

Despite covering so much time and distance, the story was praised for its vivid detail as well as its unsentimental view of war. It won him the Commonwealth Writers’ prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, solidifying it as a key text in our literary history.

Set during Australia’s foundation, a British cabin boy is rescued by Aboriginal people in North Queensland. He is raised among them for years until he eventually attempts to rejoin the white settlers.

Malouf’s 1993 novel resonated with readers around the world, winning the inaugural IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and making the 1993 Booker Prize shortlist. Its depiction of the fragility of identity, paired with the contentious history between First Nations people and British settlers, makes it a must-read for any Australian.

Written in 1996, The Conversations At Curlew Creek takes place in a small hut over just one night in 1827. Two men are deep in conversation – one is set to be hanged in the morning and the other is overseeing him before his execution. Despite their vastly different apparent fates, the two men discover they share myriad connections, including Irish roots.

The story explores major quandaries, like whether a line can be drawn between human-made laws and divine justice, and what role fate plays, especially in a colonial Australian context.

“A strange, beautiful novel ... It represents a deepening of Malouf’s style, offering the reader greater intensity and confirming Malouf’s position as one of the most exciting and uncompromising writers now producing novels in English,” acclaimed Irish author Colm Toibin said.

Malouf published his final novel, Ransom, in 2009. It’s an imaginative retelling of Homer’s Iliad, particularly King Priam’s journey to retrieve the body of his son Hector from Achilles.

A sorrowful exploration of father-son relationships, the novel takes something as massive as the Trojan War and makes it into a microcosm. It traverses grief, the pointlessness of war and the conflicting relationship between humanity and heroism. So taken were readers by this story, written 13 years after Malouf’s previous novel, that it was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary award.

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