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'She came walking out of the desert, just as the famous poet had centuries before. Impossible for them both to have survived that relentless furnace, that destroyer of all life.
Now the nameless woman lies horribly scarred and close to death in an Asylum deep in the North African desert. An Australian official, a man code-named John Devlin, has come to question her, despite the protests of her carers. It is clear that the woman and Devlin share some kind of past, and all kinds of secrets - but the greatest secret is the one she will die to protect.
As the wind calls up a deadly sandstorm, the inhabitants of the Asylum discover they are linked by a diary written by the poet Rimbaud, who in 1890 also confronted the implacable power of the desert. Over the next one hundred and twenty years, everyone who sees the diary will want it. Most will do anything to possess it.
For some, like ruthless Polish aristocrat Aleksander Walenska, the diary holds secrets that will bring him riches and power. For his troubled and religious son Czeslaw, it is a book of death, a penance to be fulfilled by sacrifice. For Czeslaw's sister, it is a book of the desert which, if returned to its rightful home, will redeem her family's name. For Devlin, broken by his own ghosts, and with one final chance to make amends, the diary is worthless; the desert not a place of revelation, but the birthplace of modern terrorism.
Only the woman, whose dark past is entwined with those who would possess the diary at any cost, sees the true worth of the book. As she surrenders to the transformative power of the desert, only she understands how it exalts the secrets mapped on the diary's precious pages.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Dedication: For my family
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Take Three
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 12 December 2010; (p. 26)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Haunted Tales
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 201 2010; (p. 38-41) 'If it is possible to assess the current state of Australian literature through a reading of four novels published in September and October 2010...then I'd say Australian fiction is haunted, preoccupied with the past'. p. 38 -
Off the Shelf : Fiction
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 November 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Rhyme in Her Reason
2010
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 7 November 2010; (p. 6-7) -
[Review] Notorious
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 90 no. 3 2010; (p. 28)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel
-
Season with Rimbaud
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 325 2010; (p. 34)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Desert's Strands of Symbolism
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 October 2010; (p. 38)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
[Review] Notorious
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 90 no. 3 2010; (p. 28)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Off the Shelf : Fiction
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 November 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Take Three
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 12 December 2010; (p. 26)
— Review of Notorious 2010 single work novel -
Rhyme in Her Reason
2010
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 7 November 2010; (p. 6-7) -
Haunted Tales
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 201 2010; (p. 38-41) 'If it is possible to assess the current state of Australian literature through a reading of four novels published in September and October 2010...then I'd say Australian fiction is haunted, preoccupied with the past'. p. 38
Awards
- 2011 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction
- 2011 shortlisted South East Asia and South Pacific Region — Best Book
- North Africa, Africa,
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cSicily,ccItaly,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- 1890s
- 1900-1999
- 2000s