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y separately published work icon An Angel in Australia single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 An Angel in Australia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Sydney, 1942 - the year of the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Darwin and the surprise attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese midget submarines. Australia is surely doomed to fall to the Japanese. Through the eyes of a naive young priest we see into the hearts of a people who fear the end of life as they know it. In the confessional, Father Frank Darragh hears how his community is changing. When one of Father Darragh's 'fallen' parishioners, the young working class wife of an Australian POW, is found brutally murdered, she takes on the character of a victim of war in the mind of the impressionable young priest. His obsession with her lost soul runs deeper than he will admit and leads Darragh on a dangerous journey of personal discovery - one that puts his own life at risk. (Source: LibrariesAustralia)

Notes

  • Dedication: To the memory of Sergeant Tom Keneally, 3rd Australian Squadron, RAAF, North Africa, WWII

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Doubleday , 2002 .
      image of person or book cover 6457092646768836995.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 336p.
      Written as: Tom Keneally
      ISBN: 1864710012 (hbk)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Sceptre ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 2232310661008083026.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: The Office of Innocence
      Extent: 336p.
      ISBN: 0340624736
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Doubleday , 2003 .
      image of person or book cover 438241257993209103.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 336p.
      ISBN: 1864710616 (pbk)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Talese ; Doubleday ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 4238616466984818824.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: Office of Innocence
      Extent: 1 vol.p.
      Edition info: 1st American ed.
      ISBN: 0385507631
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Anchor ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 8288348942307916339.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 319p.p.
      ISBN: 9781400030958 (pbk), 1400030951 (pbk), 9781400079063 (ebk)
    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Random House Australia , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 799066276575993638.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 358p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 January 2011.
      ISBN: 9781742742700
Alternative title: Spowiednik
Language: Polish

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.
  • Braille.

Works about this Work

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally Paul Sharrad , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , November no. 14 2015; (p. 20-27)
Although Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.
Interpodes : Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History Paul Sharrad , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture , vol. 2 no. 2 2012; (p. 169-179)

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

Religion, Class and Nation in Contemporary Australian Fiction Stella Borgk Barthet , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 31 no. 1 2009; (p. 83-94)
'This article tackles the charge of elitism levelled at some Australian writers by Australian critics and suggests that these assessments may be biased because of an over-emphasis on class. This kind of criticism connects elitism with the writers' appropriation of the spiritual for the endorsement of the nation, and either rejects works that treat the spiritual, or it refuses to acknowledge a spiritual element in writing that is accepted for its working-class ethos. Through readings of David Malouf's The Conversation at Curlow Creek and Thomas Keneally's A Family Madness and The Office of Innocence, I question the connection that has been made between high literariness and the symbolic endorsement of the White nation in Australia.' Source: The author.
Soundings from Down Under Nicholas Birns , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 17 no. 2 2003; (p. 164-168)
Father Knows Least Paul Baumann , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 16 March vol. 108 no. 11 2003; (p. 6)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
A Question of Faith Tom Austen , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 16 December 2002; (p. 11)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
Safety in Seminaries Peter Pierce , 2002-2003 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December-January no. 247 2002-2003; (p. 54-55)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
A Woman Taken in Adultery Oliver Herford , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 22 November no. 5199 2002; (p. 21)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
In a War-Time Sydney Parish Frank Molloy , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Tain , February-March no. 23 2003; (p. 27)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
Father Knows Least Paul Baumann , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 16 March vol. 108 no. 11 2003; (p. 6)

— Review of An Angel in Australia Thomas Keneally , 2002 single work novel
Soundings from Down Under Nicholas Birns , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 17 no. 2 2003; (p. 164-168)
Religion, Class and Nation in Contemporary Australian Fiction Stella Borgk Barthet , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 31 no. 1 2009; (p. 83-94)
'This article tackles the charge of elitism levelled at some Australian writers by Australian critics and suggests that these assessments may be biased because of an over-emphasis on class. This kind of criticism connects elitism with the writers' appropriation of the spiritual for the endorsement of the nation, and either rejects works that treat the spiritual, or it refuses to acknowledge a spiritual element in writing that is accepted for its working-class ethos. Through readings of David Malouf's The Conversation at Curlow Creek and Thomas Keneally's A Family Madness and The Office of Innocence, I question the connection that has been made between high literariness and the symbolic endorsement of the White nation in Australia.' Source: The author.
Interpodes : Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History Paul Sharrad , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture , vol. 2 no. 2 2012; (p. 169-179)

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally Paul Sharrad , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , November no. 14 2015; (p. 20-27)
Although Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.
Last amended 13 Jul 2021 12:53:00
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