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y separately published work icon The Riders single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1994... 1994 The Riders
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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

The Riders Alison Croggon , Iain Grandage (composer), 2014 single work musical theatre opera

An operatic adaptation of Tim Winton's novel.

Notes

  • Selected in December 2004 by the Australian public in an ABC poll as Australia's 69th favourite book.
  • Dedication: For Denise
  • Epigraph: Lines from 'Tom Traubert's Blues' by Tom Waits.
  • 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

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Scribner ,
      1995 .
      image of person or book cover 4586082646301338650.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 377p.
      ISBN: 0684802961
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      1995 .
      image of person or book cover 5260448349436366189.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 377p.
      ISBN: 0330339419
    • Chippendale, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Pan Macmillan Australia , 1995 .
      image of person or book cover 1897460449338440007.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 377p.
      Reprinted: 2000
      ISBN: 0330356607 (pbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      1995 .
      image of person or book cover 3806305832501677359.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 348p.
      ISBN: 0330339427
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 1996 .
      Extent: 377p.
      ISBN: 0330357395 (pbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      1996 .
      Extent: 377p.
      ISBN: 0330339427 (pbk)
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 2004 .
      Extent: 377p.
      ISBN: 0330357395
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2011 .
      image of person or book cover 3698946670441353011.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 368p.p.
      ISBN: 9781447201786, 1447201787
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2012 .
      image of person or book cover 6315290768641848458.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 377p.p.
      ISBN: 9780143568803, 0143568809
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Scribner ,
      2014 .
      image of person or book cover 7798114041564078360.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781476797342, 147679734X, 9781742538471, 1742538479
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 5869910919557332336.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 348p.p.
      ISBN: 9781509871117
Alternative title: Getrieben
Language: German
    • Frankfurt,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Wolfgang Kruger ,
      1996 .
      image of person or book cover 7218459006606809866.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 366p.
      ISBN: 3810523321 (hbk.)
    • Frankfurt am Main,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      S. Fischer Verlag ,
      1997 .
      image of person or book cover 5701619991727639104.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: Getrieben : Roman
      Extent: 366p.

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Australia : An Inescapable Cultural Paradigm? Cross- and Transcultural Elements in Tim Winton’s Fiction Tomasz Gadzina , 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 Sarah Hender , 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 Hannah Schuerholz , 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)

'The World's Australian Anthem' : Matilda Waltzes On Angela Jones , 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 Hannah Schuerholz , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2012; (p. 32-50)
Innocence Abroad Barry Hill , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 September 1994; (p. 7)

— Review of The Riders Tim Winton , 1994 single work novel
Believing the Unbelievable John Morrow , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 4 September 1994; (p. 10)

— Review of The Riders Tim Winton , 1994 single work novel
Winton Takes Risks - and Succeeds Morag Fraser , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 September 1994; (p. 11A)

— Review of The Riders Tim Winton , 1994 single work novel
Frenzied Search for Elusive Wife Michael Sharkey , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17-18 September 1994; (p. rev 6)

— Review of The Riders Tim Winton , 1994 single work novel
Winton Returns to Love and Fear Veronica Sen , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 September 1994; (p. C10)

— Review of The Riders Tim Winton , 1994 single work novel
Ahasverus on the Walkabout : The Motif of the Wandering Jew in Contemporary Australian Fiction Gloria Gebhardt , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 16 no. 1 2002; (p. 11-16)
y separately published work icon Tim Winton : The Writer and His Work Michael McGirr , 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'.
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 Jennifer Rutherford , 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)
Last amended 7 May 2020 12:52:25
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