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'Liese Campbell has an engagement for the weekend: to stay with Alexander Colquhoun, the well-mannered heir of a pastoral dynasty, at his property in western Victoria. Liese, an English architect in flight from the financial crisis, now works at her uncle's real-estate business in Melbourne. Alexander has been looking for a place in the city. The luxury apartments Liese shows him have become sets for a relationship that satisfies their fantasies - and helps pay her debts. It's a game. Both players understand the rules. Or so she thinks.
'Across the ancient landscape they drive at dusk to his grand decaying mansion. Here Liese senses a change in Alexander, and realises a different game has begun.
'This gripping, provocative new novel by one of Australia's finest writers is a psychological thriller for the modern age, one which explores the snares of money and love, and the dark side of erotic imagination. A trap has been set, but how and why? And for whom?' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Dedication: For P
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
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Dear Nightmare’ : Chloe Hooper’s The Engagement as Gothic Romance
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 3 2017; (p. 85-105)'Chloe Hooper's second novel, The Engagement (2012), was always likely to face a critical challenge. Her previous book was the multi-award-winning The Tall Man (2008), a non-fictional account of the death in police custody of an Indigenous man, Cameron Doomadgee, on Palm Island off the coast of North Queensland in 2004. Coinciding with Kevin Rudd's 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations, it was a timely work about racial injustice overshadowed by historical guilt, and was widely publicised and well received. In contrast, The Engagement, variously described as a thriller or a gothic novel, might seem frivolous, and so far has sparked no critical attention apart from reviews, most of which, while finding things to praise, also carried reservations. Owen Richardson in the Monthly-which in 2006 had published Hooper's Walkley Award-winning essay on the inquest into Doomadgee's death—thought that "it was hard not to think that Hooper's gift is slumming it a bit," and Geordie Williamson in the Australian was "not sure how successfully Hooper has held fantasy and reality in tension" (19). Kate McFadyen in Australian Book Review struck something of a common chord when she remarked: "Hooper masters all the generic plot devices, but her characters' responses and motivations do not always ring true...' (Introduction)
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Down on the Farm
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 15 March no. 5737 2013; (p. 21)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Review : The Engagement
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 27 no. 1 2013; (p. 114-115)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Bookmark
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 September 2012; (p. 30)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Possession
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 345 2012; (p. 21)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel
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Led down the Gothic Garden Path
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 August 2012; (p. 18-19)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
[Review] The Engagement
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , September no. 82 2012; (p. 62)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
The Games People Play
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 8 September 2012; (p. 29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 September 2012; (p. 36)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Engaging with the Zeitgeist
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 8 September 2012; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Possession
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 345 2012; (p. 21)
— Review of The Engagement 2012 single work novel -
Different Shades
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 18 August 2012; (p. 26-27) The Sydney Morning Herald , 18-19 August 2012; (p. 28-29) -
Hoopla Over For This Year's Write Stuff
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 3 September 2012; (p. 15) -
Dear Nightmare’ : Chloe Hooper’s The Engagement as Gothic Romance
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 3 2017; (p. 85-105)'Chloe Hooper's second novel, The Engagement (2012), was always likely to face a critical challenge. Her previous book was the multi-award-winning The Tall Man (2008), a non-fictional account of the death in police custody of an Indigenous man, Cameron Doomadgee, on Palm Island off the coast of North Queensland in 2004. Coinciding with Kevin Rudd's 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations, it was a timely work about racial injustice overshadowed by historical guilt, and was widely publicised and well received. In contrast, The Engagement, variously described as a thriller or a gothic novel, might seem frivolous, and so far has sparked no critical attention apart from reviews, most of which, while finding things to praise, also carried reservations. Owen Richardson in the Monthly-which in 2006 had published Hooper's Walkley Award-winning essay on the inquest into Doomadgee's death—thought that "it was hard not to think that Hooper's gift is slumming it a bit," and Geordie Williamson in the Australian was "not sure how successfully Hooper has held fantasy and reality in tension" (19). Kate McFadyen in Australian Book Review struck something of a common chord when she remarked: "Hooper masters all the generic plot devices, but her characters' responses and motivations do not always ring true...' (Introduction)
-
form
y
First Tuesday Book Club [November 2012]
Sydney
:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
,
2012
15254491
2012
film/TV
Host Jennifer Byrne joins regular panelists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger, and guests Ben Quilty and Monica McInerney to discuss and review the international book The Chrysalids and Australian novel, The Engagement by Chloe Hooper.
Awards
- 2013 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita Kibble Literary Award
- 2013 longlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- Western District, Victoria,