AustLit

'Antidote to a Curse, the first novel of the Maltese–Australian James Cristina, is an ambitious debut. It is excitingly difficult to classify. It is an erotic story and an international mystery. It is a celebration of Melbourne – with references to the Stalactites Greek restaurant on Lonsdale Street and the Arts Centre spire – while also being global. It brings together prose and poetry, writing and music, dream and waking experience. It is also simultaneously a novel and an imaginative reflection of how that novel came to be written.' (Introduction)