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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Trapped behind barbed wire in an alien land, a man used to guarding his secrets is compelled to set the record straight. Imagine a faraway country that was once a friend of the West becoming the enemy, its people isolated and savagely repressed by a tyrant known as Great Uncle. As one of the country's most celebrated writers and a war hero, the storyteller has a better life than most, until he is made an offer he can't refuse. He must write a great novel, telling of the suffering of his people under the enemy's cruel economic sanctions and portraying Great Uncle as their saviour. This masterpiece must be completed in time for its international debut in three months, or else. If the writer cannot, or will not, meet the tyrant's deadline, he and anyone he cares for will pay the ultimate price. Stark, terrifying and utterly compelling, The Tyrant's Novel is both a gripping thriller and a chilling glimpse of a fictional world that seems all too real. (Source: LibrariesAustralia)
Notes
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Dedication: To my brother, John Patrick, the good practitioner, with fraternal love
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Listed in The New York Times Book Review's list of Notable Books for 2004.
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Listed among the New York Public Library's 25 books to remember from 2004.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording, large print.
Works about this Work
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A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally
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. -
Words, Sticks and Stones : Keneally, Literature and Social Impact
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , November vol. 28 no. 4 2013; (p. 90-105) -
Writing the Self/ Writing the Other in Thomas Keneally’s 'The Tyrant’s Novel' and Inaam Kachachi’s 'The American Granddaughter'
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Text , vol. 7 no. 3 2012; 'Thomas Keneally's The Tyrant's Novel (2004) and Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter (2008) both deal with the crisis in Iraq and its ramifications. Recognizing the important ideological and humanistic role played by literature, both writers choose to assume their moral responsibility in the face of injustice, war and violence. The paper attempts to show how each of them follows a humanistic approach that advocates human rights and equality. It also compares how each evades or otherwise succumbs to the pitfalls of Humanism that turns the sign "human' to a universal category representing humanity according to the Western model. In so doing it examines how the fact of their coming from opposite sides of the cultural divide influences the cross-cultural negotiation of publicly disseminated representations of both the self and its other(s).' [Author's abstract] -
Frontiers of Life and Death : The Human, New Wars and World Literary Sensibilities
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: What is the Human? : Australian Voices from the Humanities 2012; (p. 103-122) -
Disappearing Race : Normative Whiteness and Cultural Appropriation in Australian Refugee Narratives
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Narrating Race : Asia, (Trans)Nationalism, Social Change 2011; (p. 235-251)
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Fable for our Times
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 7 June 2003; (p. 13)
— Review of The Tyrant's Novel 2003 single work novel -
First Page Test
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 June 2003; (p. 2)
— Review of The Tyrant's Novel 2003 single work novel -
Torchbearer's Angry Light
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 5 July 2003; (p. 11)
— Review of The Tyrant's Novel 2003 single work novel -
Fact Behind the Fiction
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 July 2003; (p. 6)
— Review of The Tyrant's Novel 2003 single work novel -
Fury in a Modern Parable
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 5 July 2003; (p. 5)
— Review of The Tyrant's Novel 2003 single work novel -
No Leadership for Those Who Oppose Asylum Policy: Keneally
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 July 2003; (p. 3) Moran reports on a talk given by Thomas Keneally while in Canberra on a promotional tour for his novel The Tyrant's Novel. -
Only the Names Have Been Changed
2003
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 July 2003; (p. 4-5) The Age , 19 July 2003; (p. 8) Baum analyses her experience of being fictionalised as the character 'Alice' in the novel The Tyrant's Novel and comments on other occasions, known to her, of writers fictionalising 'real' people with little apparent disguise. -
The Conscience of the Camps
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 July 2003; (p. 10) -
Author Writes off Ruddock
2003
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 10 July 2003; (p. 9) -
Keneally Opens Window to a Very Real World
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 2 October 2004; (p. 23) The Tyrant's Novel by Tom Keneally is the October 2004 Big Book Club selection.
Awards
- 2003 winner Colin Roderick Award Announced in 2004
Last amended 10 Nov 2017 12:47:30
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