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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
The compartments in our father's life were not the separations he needed to build to preserve his sanity. They were his sanity. When he fell in love... when he fell to the abjection he deserved, the walls began dissolving. And once the walls came down between all three, or now four, of his lives, so did every other retaining wall - between past and present, present and future, self- and non-self, dream and wakefulness. The walls were his sanity. Love had driven him mad....
'This is the story of John Wonder, a man with three families, each one kept secret from the other, each one containing two children, a boy and a girl, each called Adam and Evie. As he travels from family to family in different cities, he works as an Authenticator, verifying world records, confirming facts, setting things straight, while his own life is a teetering tower of breathtaking lies and betrayals...
'This is a stunning novel that again and spectacularly confirms Malcolm Knox as one of our brightest stars, an imaginative tour de force that ranks alongside the best work of Vladimir Nabokov, Martin Amis, David Ireland and Peter Carey. '
'The Guardian famously wrote of Malcolm, 'If Winton is an aria, Knox is early Rolling Stones', but this time around he's got the orchestra along as well and every single note rings deep and rich and true. This bedtime story told by children to adults is jaw-droppingly original, breathtakingly audacious and dazzlingly accomplished... ' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For Jane Palfreyman
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
Works about this Work
-
Books 2015 #1
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 19 December 2015; -
Thrice Hitched to Allegory
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , August 2015;
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
Book Review : The Wonder Lover
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , June 2015; (p. 42)
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
High-Wire
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 372 2015; (p. 20)
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
Well Read
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 May 2015; (p. 32)
— Review of Coming Rain 2015 single work novel ; The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel
-
All so Afraid, All so Alone
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 April 2015; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
When Worlds Collide
Playing Happy Families until Three Separate Worlds Collide
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 9 May 2015; (p. 15) The Saturday Age , 9-10 May 2015; (p. 29)
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
Review : The Wonder Lover
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 25 April 2015;
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
Well Read
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 May 2015; (p. 32)
— Review of Coming Rain 2015 single work novel ; The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
High-Wire
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 372 2015; (p. 20)
— Review of The Wonder Lover 2015 single work novel -
Malcolm Knox
2015
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25-26 April 2015; (p. 30-31) -
Books 2015 #1
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 19 December 2015; -
form
y
The Book Club [May 2015]
Sydney
:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
,
2015
15258582
2015
film/TV
Host Jennifer Byrne joins regular panelists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger, and guests Liane Moriarty and Don Watson to discuss and review the international book If This is a Man and Australian novel, The Wonder Lover by Malcolm Knox.
Awards
- 2016 longlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2015 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Fiction Book Award