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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Greer Gordon lives in Italy with Mischa Svoboda, a driven Czech-born painter with a booming international reputation. She and Mischa met in the 1970s, when his debut show at the small Melbourne art gallery where Greer then worked created a sensation. He was unknown at the time, a recently arrived refugee from Prague. Their explosive love affair caused Greer to abandon her husband, job and autocratic boss Verity, sever all contact with home and embark on a nomadic life with Mischa.
'Twenty-five years later, Tony, a young American art critic, has been researching a biography of Mischa and arrives in the small Italian hilltop community where they now live. Greer is consumed by anxiety, fearing 'the biographer' may have unearthed something that happened as a consequence of her meeting Mischa, a buried secret she had intended to write out of her life story. Greer and Tony play out a gripping cat-and-mouse game in which she tries to glean who he has spoken to and what, if anything, he knows, while he lets drop, with calculated casualness, graded snippets of information designed to keep her guessing.
'It becomes clear that Tony is manipulating a dramatic outcome for the purposes of his story. It will be an investigative read in which the reader discovers the facts as the biographer-detective unravels them. The biographer intends to make his name with this book.
'As her hand is forced, Greer embarks on a tense journey of her own. In revisiting the past from the perspective of the present, through Tony's artful interrogations and her own diary, she is compelled to put her youthful self on trial. In the process she makes a life-changing discovery.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
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Dedication: To the two John Duigans: my brother and my uncle. And to my sister- and brother-in-law, Helen and Jan Senbergs.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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We're a Weird Mob in Italy ,Too
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , December vol. 3 no. 11 2008; (p. 18-19)
— Review of Australians in Italy : Contemporary Lives and Impressions 2008 anthology prose ; The Biographer 2008 single work novel ; Death in the Mountains : The True Story of a Tuscan Murder 2008 single work prose ; The Villa Diana 1950 selected work prose -
An Anthropological Turn?
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 192 2008; (p. 88-92)
— Review of On a Wing and a Prayer 2006 single work novel ; The Lost Dog 2007 single work novel ; Musk and Byrne 2008 single work novel ; The Solemn Lantern Maker 2008 single work novel ; The Biographer 2008 single work novel ; The Spare Room 2008 single work novel ; They Called Me the Wildman : The Prison Diary of Henricke Nelson 2008 single work novel ; Many Years a Thief 2007 single work novel ; Jamaica : A Novel 2007 single work novel ; The Good Parents 2008 single work novel ; Black Sheep : A Dystopian Novel 2007 single work novel ; Misconceptions 2008 single work novel -
Time of One's Own
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 May 2008; (p. 26-27) -
From Palette to Page
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 May 2008; (p. 12)
— Review of Musk and Byrne 2008 single work novel ; The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
Life's Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 25-26 April 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of The Biographer 2008 single work novel
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Suspense Gets Buried in Haste and Waste on Way
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 April 2008; (p. 17)
— Review of The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
To Give or To Withhold?
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 300 2008; (p. 27)
— Review of The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
Undone By Formulaic Characters and Plot
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 April 2008; (p. 12-13)
— Review of The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
Life's Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 25-26 April 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
From Palette to Page
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 10 May 2008; (p. 12)
— Review of Musk and Byrne 2008 single work novel ; The Biographer 2008 single work novel -
The Inner Life of an Intruder
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 March 2008; (p. 10-11) -
Time of One's Own
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 May 2008; (p. 26-27)
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cItaly,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Melbourne, Victoria,