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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
In this stunning collection, internationally acclaimed writer David Malouf gives us bookish boys and taciturn men, strong women and wayward sons, fathers and daughters, lovers and husbands, a composer and his muse. These are their stories, whole lives brought dramatically into focus and powerfully rooted in the vividly rendered landscape of the vast Australian continent. Malouf writes about men and women looking for something they seem to have missed, or missed out on, puzzling over not only their own lives but also the place they have come to occupy in the lives of others. This single volume gathers both a new collection of Malouf’s short fiction, Every Move You Make, and all of his previously published stories.
Source: Penguin Random House
(http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106744/the-complete-stories-by-david-malouf/9780307386038/)
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 11 (Literature Unit 1). This unit could also be used selectively in AC: Years 9–10.
Themes
Aboriginality, belonging, change, coming of age, connection to place, death, fear, identity, image, individuality, isolation, Language, memory, relationships, silence, thresholds, war
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Intercultural understanding, Literacy
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Notes
-
Epigraph: 'When I consider the brevity of my life, swallowed up as it is in the eternity that precedes and will follow it, the tiny space I occupy and what is visible to me, cast as I am into a vast infinity of spaces that I know nothing of and which know nothing of me, I take frght, I am stunned to find myself here rather than elsewhere, for there is no reason why it should be here rather than there, and now rather than then. Who set me here? By whose order and under what guiding destiny was this time, this place assigned to me?' - Pascal, Pensees.
Contents
- The Valley of Lagoons, single work short story (p. 3-45)
- Every Move You Make, single work short story (p. 46-65)
- War Baby, single work short story (p. 66-98)
- Towards Midnight, single work short story (p. 99-108)
-
Elsewhere,
single work
short story
'When Andy, a down-to-earth miner, drives to Sydney for his bohemian sister-in-law's funeral, a new world opens up to him.' - (Journeys, p.61)
- Mrs Porter and the Rock, single work short story (p. 122-151)
- The Domestic Cantata, single work short story (p. 152-175)
- At Schindler's, single work short story (p. 179-197)
- Closer, single work short story (p. 198-203)
- Dream Stuff, single work short story (p. 204-227)
- Night Training, single work short story (p. 228-235)
- Sally's Story, single work short story (p. 236-250)
- Jacko's Reach, single work short story (p. 251-256)
- Lone Pine, single work short story (p. 257-268)
- Blacksoil Country, single work short story (p. 269-280)
- Great Day, single work short story (p. 281-323)
- Southern Skies, single work short story (p. 327-343)
- A Trip to the Grundelsee, single work short story (p. 344-353)
- The Empty Lunch-Tin, single work short story (p. 354-360)
- Sorrows and Secrets, single work short story (p. 361-371)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
form
y
Interviews with 10 Australian Authors
Tom Tilley
(interviewer),
Melbourne
:
ABC Splash
,
2018
16600399
2018
website
interview
film/TV
'Meet ten of Australia's literary greats. Tom Tilley speaks with writers such as David Malouf, Nadia Wheatley and Michael Gow about their works, their inspirations and their lives as writers.'
Source: Introduction.
-
[Essay] : The Complete Stories
2013
single work
essay
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-;'There are always two landscapes in a Malouf story. The one you can touch with your hands, and the one that is dreamed – discoverable by language, always on the verge of disappearing. In medieval Japanese art and letters, this quality was known as yūgen (幽玄),which might be translated as ‘shadow-filled’ or ‘beyond words’ or ‘that which resists being clearly seen’. Arthur Waley, translating fifteenth century playwright and pioneer of Noh, Zeami Motokiyo, said that wandering in a great forest without thought of return is a path to yūgen, as is standing on a shore and gazing after a fishing boat that disappears behind an island, or seeing wild geese disappearing into white clouds. Kamo-no-Chomei (1155–1216) wrote in his Mumyō-sho (Treatise Without a Name), that yūgen occurs, ‘when an unseen world hovers in the atmosphere’.' (Introduction)
-
Favourite Fiction 2011
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , December 2011; -
A Tribute to the Short Story
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Indigo , Spring no. 4 2009; (p. 16-24) ‘Susan Midalia argues that there is a ‘belief that the short story is inferior to the novel; for while the novel is regarded as complex, substantial and enduring, the short story tends to be devalued as slight and ephemeral, even superficial. We see this disregard for the short story among publishers, many of whom are prepared to take risks with debut novels, but who typically regard collections of stories by first-time or unknown writers as commercially unviable. Think, too, of the disproportionate number of awards and prizes for novels compared to those offered for collections of stories, and of the paucity of short story writers on the panels of literary festivals. But I want to insist that this generic hierarchy – the privileging of the novel over the short story – is both misplaced and unfortunate. Misplaced, because it misses the point that the two narrative genres are in fact very different from one another; and unfortunate, because it works to prevent readers from enjoying the many and various pleasures afforded by the short story form.’ (p. 16)
-
Showcase Packs a Powerful Bunch
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 October 2007; (p. 15)
— Review of The Complete Stories 2007 selected work short story -
Crossing the Line
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 October 2007; (p. 23)
— Review of The Complete Stories 2007 selected work short story -
Short Stories Are Big on Impact
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 October 2007; (p. 32-33)
— Review of The Complete Stories 2007 selected work short story -
Telling Tales
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 November 2007; (p. 8-9)
— Review of The Complete Stories 2007 selected work short story -
An Agreeable Planet
2007-2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December-January no. 297 2007-2008; (p. 29-30)
— Review of The Complete Stories 2007 selected work short story -
How We Read this Year : Australian Fiction
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 15 December 2007; (p. 11) Literary highlights in Australian fiction for 2007 . The author gives her impressions of these works. -
Luminous Dust
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Heat , no. 16 (New Series) 2008; (p. 185-193) -
Malouf Wins WA's $110,000 Book Prize
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 22 November 2008; (p. 19) -
Writer's Surprising Plots Woo Judges of Region's Richest Prize
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 November 2008; (p. 3) -
Rich Pickings for Malouf
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 November 2008; (p. 7)
Awards
- 2008 inaugural winner Australia-Asia Literary Award
- 2008 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction
- 2008 shortlisted Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize — Fiction