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y separately published work icon The Memory Room single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Memory Room
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Vincent Austin thinks his devotion to secrecy for its own sake makes him a born spy. His childhood friend Erika Lange shares his fascination with the covert. Having graduated University Vincent is recruited by ASIS - Australia's overseas secret intelligence service. Erika eventually joins Foreign Affairs as a press officer. As the Cold War reaches its final peak, the fantasies of youth have become reality for Vincent and Erika, but they lead to a tragic climax. It is left to Vincent's university friend Bradley, who inherits Vincent's diaries, to contemplate their story. - from Back cover.

Exhibitions

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Notes

  • Dedication: For Robin and Gareth
  • Epigraph: 'The Crossroads' by W.H. Auden
  • Epigraph: There's something addicting about a secret.
    J. Edgar Hoover

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 4646103600849614405.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 432p.
      Note/s:
      • On t.p. verso: First published in Australia by Knopf in 2007.
      ISBN: 9781741667301 (pbk.), 9781741667295 (hbk.)
    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Knopf , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 2098967489643581372.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 432p.
      Note/s:
      • Libraries Australia note: First published North Sydney, N.S.W. : Knopf, 2007
      ISBN: 9781741667295 (hbk.), 9781741667301 (pbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Jonathan Cape ,       2007 .
      image of person or book cover 2141771506703754653.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 432p.
      ISBN: 9780224084932 (hbk.)
    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2010 .
      image of person or book cover 156269702516024553.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781864711615, 1864711612
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Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
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Works about this Work

y separately published work icon The Spying Game : An Australian Angle Bruce Bennett , North Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2012 Z1859516 2012 single work criticism

'What are the roles of reason and imagination in secret intelligence? How do apparently normal people get involved? What happens to them?

'While British, American and Soviet empires have produced plentiful supplies of heroes, villains and stirring tales, Australians have typically averted their gaze from this country's involvement in the "second oldest profession". And yet espionage has been a part of Australia's history since the earliest European imaginings of a southern land mass.

'Australian spies have produced their share of heroes and villains and this book shows how they influenced Australia's diplomatic and military policy, and the personal price some of them paid.' (From the publisher's website.)
Memory, Imagination, and Identity in Secret Intelligence : Christopher Koch's The Memory Room Bruce Bennett , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 23 no. 2 2009; (p. 109-113) 'Sometimes a novel emerges in a culture that touches the nerve of its times even though it is set a generation or so earlier. Dickens's Bleak House is a novel of this kind. The institutions of law remain forever colored by Dickens's satiric observations in this novel. Christopher Koch is not a satirist, but his novel Highways to a War (1995) remains the most memorable of the spate of novels that explored Australia's military involvement in the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1960s and 70s. Koch's latest novel, The Memory Room (2007), set in China and Australia in the early 1980s, has a similar impact and again recalls events some twenty-five years earlier, with a focus on the profession of secret intelligence.' (p. 109)
Christopher Koch : Drawn to Comics Elaine Minor , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2009; In debates about appreciation and interpretation of Literature, Christopher Koch is an outspoken, and often controversial, figure. He deplores what he terms the postmodern approach to critical analysis, questioning why children are 'studying films, comic strips and hopelessly bad contemporary novels with social messages, rather than major works that have stood the test of time'. It is somewhat surprising then, to study Koch's novels and uncover how frequently his work is informed by childhood influences and his love of comic books. This essay considers whether unwittingly Koch, as an author, is an instrument of social forces.
[Review] The Memory Room Chad Habel , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 3 no. 4 2008;
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
A Novel of Interpersonal Intrigue Justin C. Garoupa , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 22 no. 1 2008; (p. 74-75)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
Master Storyteller in Seamless Form Simon Leys , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 October 2007; (p. 12-13)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
[Review] The Memory Room Tim Coronel , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 87 no. 4 2007; (p. 45)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
Twilight Zones Don Anderson , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 6 November vol. 125 no. 6594 2007; (p. 62)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel ; Landscape of Farewell Alex Miller , 2007 single work novel
Spy Tale Reveals Secrets of Past Trauma Mark Thomas , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 3 November 2007; (p. 12)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
Life of Secrecy Lucy Clark , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 4 November 2007; (p. 18)
— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
Life of Living Dangerously Lynne Minion , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 October 2007; (p. 8-9)
In a World of His Own Greg Sheridan , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 27-28 October 2007; (p. 26-28, 31)
One Eye to the Keyhole Jason Steger , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: The Age , 3 November 2007; (p. 32-33)
Spies Like Us Are Mere Innocents Jason Steger , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 November 2007; (p. 30-31)
Koch's Expanding Universe Imre Salusinszky , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 February 2008; (p. 40)
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Awards

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Last amended 17 Jun 2020 09:37:09
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
  • Beijing,
    c
    China,
    c
    East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Canberra, Australian Capital Territory,
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
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