'Known for its sharp yet defamiliarizing take on the landscape and an aesthetic of purity historically associated with it, The Plainsis uniformly described as a masterpiece of Australian literature. 'Murnane touches on foibles and philosophy, plays with the makings of a fable or allegory, and all the while toys with tone, moving easily from earnest to deadpan to lightly ironic, a meld of Buster Keaton, the Kafka of the short stories, and Swift in A Modest Proposal.A provocative, delightful, diverting must-reread.' STARRED Review, Kirkus Reviews ' The Plainshas that peculiar singularity that can make literature great.' Ed Wright, Australian, Best Books of 2015 In the depths and surfaces of this extraordinary fable you will see your inner self eerily reflected again and again.' Sydney Morning Herald a piece of imaginative writing so remarkably sustained that it is a subject for meditation rather than a mere reading. 'A distinguished, distinctive, unforgettable novel.' Shirley Hazzard In 1999 Murnane won the Patrick White Award and in 2009 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. His debut novel, Tamarisk Row(1974), was followed by ten other works of fiction, including The Plainsand most recently Border Districts. He has been a primary teacher, an editor and a university lecturer. Gerald Murnanewas born in Melbourne in 1939. This handsome new hardback edition is introduced by Ben Lerner, author of the internationally acclaimed novels Leaving the Atocha Stationand 10:04, and a work of criticism, The Hatred of Poetry. This is the story of the families of the plains-obsessed with their land and history, their culture and mythology-and of the man who ventured into their world.įirst published in 1982, The Plainsis a mesmerising work of startling originality.

The plains by gerald murnane