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y separately published work icon The Complete Stories selected work   short story  
  • Author:agent David Malouf http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/malouf-david
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Complete Stories
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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

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

* Contents derived from the Sydney, New South Wales,:Knopf , 2007 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The Valley of Lagoons, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 3-45)
Every Move You Make, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 46-65)
War Baby, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 66-98)
Towards Midnight, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 99-108)
Elsewhere, David Malouf , 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)
(p. 109-121)
Mrs Porter and the Rock, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 122-151)
The Domestic Cantata, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 152-175)
At Schindler's, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 179-197)
Closer, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 198-203)
Dream Stuff, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 204-227)
Night Training, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 228-235)
Sally's Story, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 236-250)
Jacko's Reach, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 251-256)
Lone Pine, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 257-268)
Blacksoil Country, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 269-280)
Great Day, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 281-323)
Southern Skies, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 327-343)
A Trip to the Grundelsee, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 344-353)
The Empty Lunch-Tin, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 354-360)
Sorrows and Secrets, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 361-371)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Pantheon Books ,
      2007 .
      image of person or book cover 1203018135205502054.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: viii, 508p.p.
      Edition info: 1st US ed.
      ISBN: 9780375424977 (hbk.)
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Knopf , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 8103188449384493260.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: viii, 508p.p.
      ISBN: 9781741666113 (hbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Vintage ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 699794587476409594.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 10 June 1998.
      ISBN: 9780307386038
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 760621366479709868.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 528p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 19 March 2018

      ISBN: 9780143790853

Works about this Work

What I’m Reading Janet Lee , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018;
form y separately published work icon 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 Patrick Holland , 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 Sarah Drummond , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , December 2011;
A Tribute to the Short Story Susan Midalia , 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 Diane Stubbings , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 October 2007; (p. 15)

— Review of The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story
Crossing the Line Carmel Bird , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 October 2007; (p. 23)

— Review of The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story
Short Stories Are Big on Impact Malcolm Knox , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 October 2007; (p. 32-33)

— Review of The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story
Telling Tales Geoffrey Lehmann , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 November 2007; (p. 8-9)

— Review of The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story
An Agreeable Planet Patrick Allington , 2007-2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December-January no. 297 2007-2008; (p. 29-30)

— Review of The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story
How We Read this Year : Australian Fiction Diane Stubbings , 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 Jeffrey Poacher , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Heat , no. 16 (New Series) 2008; (p. 185-193)
Malouf Wins WA's $110,000 Book Prize Rod Moran , 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 Gia Metherell , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 November 2008; (p. 3)
Rich Pickings for Malouf Jason Steger , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 22 November 2008; (p. 7)
Last amended 11 Jun 2020 11:32:22
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