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'I began to see that whatever I might write about Max, discover about him, piece together with those old shards of memory, it would be his influence on the friendships of the living that would frame his story in the present.
'According to your 1939 Gestapo file, you adopted the cover names Landau and Maxim. The name your mother and father gave you was Moses. We knew you as Max. You had worked in secret. From an early age you concealed yourself - like the grey box beetle in the final country of your exile, maturing on its journey out of sight beneath the bark of the tree.
'You risked death every day. And when at last the struggle became hopeless, you escaped the hell and found a haven in China first, and then Australia, where you became one of those refugees who, in their final place of exile, chose not death but silence and obscurity.
'Alex Miller followed the faint trail of Max Blatt's early life for five years. Max's story unfolded, slowly at first, from the Melbourne Holocaust Centre's records then to Berlin's Federal Archives. From Berlin, Miller travelled to Max's old home town of Wroclaw in Poland. And finally in Israel with Max's niece, Liat Shoham, and her brother Yossi Blatt, at Liat's home in the moshav Shadmot Dvora in the Lower Galilee, the circle of friendship was closed and the mystery of Max's legendary silence was unmasked.
'Max is an astonishing and moving tribute to friendship, a meditation on memory itself, and a reminder to the reader that history belongs to humanity.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Listening to the Imagined Sound of Contemporary Australian Literature
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , December vol. 22 no. 2 2022; 'Listening and reading literature. These two activities are maybe counter-intuitive partners. In sensual terms, one mostly concerns the ear, the other the eye. When we listen, it is, usually, mostly to sound, to resonance, physical vibration—although composer and sound theorist John Cage tells us we can also listen to silence. When we read, it is a silent activity. Of course, we can listen to words, to a reading or an audiobook, and we can listen to poetry. But often, perhaps mostly, we read in silence.' (Introduction) -
Alex Miller. Max
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 2 2021;
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography -
Shards and Silences
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17 October 2020; (p. 14)
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography'Alex Miller is a novelist who has always welcomed a conversation with history. During a period in our national literary life when there have been occasional flashes of tension between history and fiction, Miller’s work has luminously transcended these categories in a way only achieved by the greatest literature.' (Introduction)
-
Max by Alex Miller Review - A Compelling and Tender Story of One Man's Hidden History
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 30 October 2020;
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography 'The dual Miles Franklin award-winner excavates the history of one of his dearest and most mysterious friends, Holocaust survivor Max Blatt.' -
The Brother as Torturer : Alex Miller's Tribute to a Mentor
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 425 2020; (p. 36)
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography 'When Alex Miller first thought of writing about Max Blatt, he imagined a celebration of his life. But would Max have wanted that? He was a melancholy, chainsmoking European migrant, quiet and self-effacing, who claimed nothing for himself except defeat and futility.' (Introduction)
-
The Brother as Torturer : Alex Miller's Tribute to a Mentor
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 425 2020; (p. 36)
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography 'When Alex Miller first thought of writing about Max Blatt, he imagined a celebration of his life. But would Max have wanted that? He was a melancholy, chainsmoking European migrant, quiet and self-effacing, who claimed nothing for himself except defeat and futility.' (Introduction) -
Max by Alex Miller Review - A Compelling and Tender Story of One Man's Hidden History
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 30 October 2020;
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography 'The dual Miles Franklin award-winner excavates the history of one of his dearest and most mysterious friends, Holocaust survivor Max Blatt.' -
Shards and Silences
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17 October 2020; (p. 14)
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography'Alex Miller is a novelist who has always welcomed a conversation with history. During a period in our national literary life when there have been occasional flashes of tension between history and fiction, Miller’s work has luminously transcended these categories in a way only achieved by the greatest literature.' (Introduction)
-
Alex Miller. Max
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 2 2021;
— Review of Max 2020 single work biography -
Listening to the Imagined Sound of Contemporary Australian Literature
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , December vol. 22 no. 2 2022; 'Listening and reading literature. These two activities are maybe counter-intuitive partners. In sensual terms, one mostly concerns the ear, the other the eye. When we listen, it is, usually, mostly to sound, to resonance, physical vibration—although composer and sound theorist John Cage tells us we can also listen to silence. When we read, it is a silent activity. Of course, we can listen to words, to a reading or an audiobook, and we can listen to poetry. But often, perhaps mostly, we read in silence.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2021 shortlisted National Biography Award
