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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Fred Scully is in another country, a 'desert Irishman' far from home. After two long years of travelling through Europe, he decided to move his family from Australia to western Ireland. Scully arrived weeks ahead of his family to renovate the old farmhouse they'd bought in the shadow of a castle in County Offally, and which he's renovated by hand. Now, at the gate of Shannon's international airport, he anxiously awaits the arrival of his pregnant wife and seven-year-old daughter, envisioning a new life ahead, a fresh start. He has waited for and worried about this for months. He is a man who does not like being alone. The plane lands, the glass doors to the terminal slide open and his daughter emerges. Alone. There is no note, no word of explanation from his wife, only the mute silence of his stunned child. In an instant, Scully's life goes down in flames. This is a story of a marriage in our time. So begins a love-crazed odyssey across Europe, to the underside of the male psyche, in search of a woman vanished.
(Adapted from Trove)
Adaptations
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The Riders
Iain Grandage
(composer),
2014
single work
musical theatre
opera
An operatic adaptation of Tim Winton's novel.
Notes
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Selected in December 2004 by the Australian public in an ABC poll as Australia's 69th favourite book.
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Dedication: For Denise
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Epigraph: Lines from 'Tom Traubert's Blues' by Tom Waits.
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In October 2018, it was announced that Ridley Scott's production company Scott Free would be adapting The Riders, with a script by David Kajganich. No director or release date had yet been set.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Australia : An Inescapable Cultural Paradigm? Cross- and Transcultural Elements in Tim Winton’s Fiction
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 7 no. 2 2016; (p. 30-40) 'The article considers Tim Winton’s fiction in terms of its cross- and transcultural character. Despite the fact that local Australian settings permeate the writer’s narratives, Winton creates an imaginary space that is both local and transnational in terms of its quality of the domestic culture, which Winton extends beyond its original field of practice. Winton achieves the transcultural quality of his fiction through transgressions and boundary breaking that are possible due to his frequent reworking of the traditional Australian themes and concepts of the unknown, supernatural, mystical, numinous and sacred, exploitation of leitmotifs of journey, transit and in-betweenness, use of cross-cultural symbols as well as various utopian and dystopian topoi such as Arcadia and Heimat.' (Publication abstract) -
Hydra Healing
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 25 July 2015; (p. 39) -
‘Over the Cliff and into the Water’ : Love, Death and Confession in Tim Winton’s Fiction
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Tim Winton : Critical Essays 2014; (p. 96-121)'Tim Winton's female characters show a strong tendency towards self-threatening behaviors, transience and ferocity. This is evident in the violent deaths of Jewel in An Open Swimmer, Maureen in Shallows, Ida's murder in In the Winter Dark [...], Tegwyn's self-harm in That Eye, the Sky, Dolly's alcoholism in Cloudstreet, Eva Sanderson's Hutchence-lookalike death in Breath and, obviously, the ephemerality of mothers in Dirt Music...' (96)
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'The World's Australian Anthem' : Matilda Waltzes On
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 477-483) -
Bodies that Speak : Mediating Female Embodiment in Tim Winton's Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2012; (p. 32-50)
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Innocence Abroad
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 September 1994; (p. 7)
— Review of The Riders 1994 single work novel -
Believing the Unbelievable
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 4 September 1994; (p. 10)
— Review of The Riders 1994 single work novel -
Winton Takes Risks - and Succeeds
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 September 1994; (p. 11A)
— Review of The Riders 1994 single work novel -
Frenzied Search for Elusive Wife
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 September 1994; (p. rev 6)
— Review of The Riders 1994 single work novel -
Winton Returns to Love and Fear
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 September 1994; (p. C10)
— Review of The Riders 1994 single work novel -
Ahasverus on the Walkabout : The Motif of the Wandering Jew in Contemporary Australian Fiction
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 16 no. 1 2002; (p. 11-16) - y Tim Winton : The Writer and His Work South Yarra : Macmillan Education Australia , 1999 Z1022919 1999 single work criticism Aimed principally at younger readers and students, this work contains biographical information about Winton which situates him in a Western Australian context and has chapters dealing with each of Winton's novels to date. Each chapter concludes with a section 'Questions and Activities'.
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Winton First Among Peers
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 27 May 2003; (p. 3) -
The Colonising Victim : Tim Winton's Irish Conceit
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Flight from Certainty : The Dilemma of Identity and Exile 2001; (p. 153-163) -
A Look at... Tim Winton's Places and People
1998
single work
interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 13 no. 3 1998; (p. 20-21)
Awards
- 1996 winner National Library of Australia National Audio Book-of-the-Year Award The TDK Australian Audio Book Awards — TDK Australian Audio Book Awards — Unabridged Fiction Category
- 1996 winner National Library of Australia National Audio Book-of-the-Year Award The TDK Australian Audio Book Awards — TDK Australian Audio Book Awards — Overall Award
- 1996 winner The TDK Australian Audio Book Awards — Overall Winner and Unabridged Fiction
- 1995 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Fiction
- 1995 winner 3M Talking Book of the Year Award
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cAustralia,c
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cIreland,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Europe,