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Remembering Babylon: winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize and Dublin Literary Award Paperback – 1 April 2009

by David Malouf (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 201 ratings
Edition: 1st
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WINNER OF THE 1996 INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BANJO PRIZE FOR FICTION


In the 1840s, a ship's boy cast ashore in northern Australia is taken in by the Indigenous people. Sixteen years later he steps out of the bush and inadvertently confronts the new white settlers with their unspoken terrors.

The story of a boy caught between two worlds, Remembering Babylon is a picture of Australia at the time of its foundation, focused on the hostility between early British settlers and native Aboriginal people.
_______

'Australia's finest writer' MIRIAM COSIC, THE AUSTRALIAN
'Fascinating ... Malouf's prose shimmers with the sights and sounds of the continent.' DAILY MAIL
' ... a deft and economical evocation of an entire nascent society, punctuated by moments of dazzling, revelatory language and unforgettable images.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
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  1. ISBN-10
    1741667682
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1741667684
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    ADULT LOCAL VINTAGE - MASS MKT
  5. Publication date
    1 April 2009
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    12.7 x 1.6 x 19.7 cm
  8. Print length
    192 pages
  9. See all details
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Book Description

"Winner of the 1996 International Impac Dublin Literary Award."

About the Author

David Malouf is the internationally acclaimed author of novels including Ransom, The Great World (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' prize and the Prix Femina Etranger), Remembering Babylon (winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), An Imaginary Life, Conversations at Curlow Creek, Dream Stuff, Every Move You Make and his autobiographical classic 12 Edmondstone Street. His Collected Stories won the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award. His most recent books are A First Place and The Writing Life. He was born in 1934 and was brought up in Brisbane.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ADULT LOCAL VINTAGE - MASS MKT; 1st edition (1 April 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1741667682
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1741667684
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 1.6 x 19.7 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 201 ratings

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David Malouf

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3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
201 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

D. Hawthorne
3.0 out of 5 stars Too many narrators
Reviewed in Australia on 13 February 2018
I am not a fan of authentic dialogue. It makes the dialogue hard to follow and interrupts the flow of the narrative.

In other ways, Malouf is interposing himself between the reader and the story. This is the case with the multiple narrators and extensive exposition that accompanies the introduction of each new narrator. This has the danger of turning the novel into a travel guide.

The book could have been tighter if it was told through a single narrator. The obvious candidates are either Lachlan or Janet. Both of these were profoundly affected by Gemma's entry into their lives.

In all, this was an uneven book with great potential and given the characters.

Malouf's historical research gives life to this novel.
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John Vromans
1.0 out of 5 stars Didn't work for me
Reviewed in Australia on 9 May 2018
I am an avid reader and have read many books I will never forget and have become part of me. This book was NOT one of them. To me (maybe I'm the problem!), this was a shallow meaningless tale where the author was striving for high intellect, but only suceeded in puting together something threadbare where no storyline had any understandable resolution. It was a waste of my time and I will never read another 'David Malouf'.
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Top reviews from other countries

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emds
5.0 out of 5 stars Alta qualità
Reviewed in Italy on 7 June 2019
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Ben fatto esteticamente (margini giusti e caratteri chiari) al contrario di The Great World impossibile da leggere senza farsi venire un’emicrania per la bassissima qualità di stampa
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Pilar I.M.
4.0 out of 5 stars Recomendable 100%!
Reviewed in Spain on 31 January 2017
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Baratisímo! Libro de segunda mano, casi como nuevo excepto por varias de las páginas del principio que tenían anotaciones pero que no molestan en la lectura. Repetiré sin duda!
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C. Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic novel about identify, fear, and compassion
Reviewed in the United States on 30 May 2012
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The writing of David Malouf is always poetic, full of sensation and unique perspective. This makes him a joy to read, for he brings the reader to their senses with his vibrant evocation of smells, tastes, touch, and sound. Whereas we grow so accustomed to reading novels where plot and character development are the two primary concerns of the author, Malouf takes a different strategy. He enhances both plot and character development with dreamlike forces of nature and society and environment that act upon both the plot and character to such an extent that these forces become dominant themes. This is certainly the case in Remembering Babylon where fear of the unknown becomes a major force that captures every character and entraps them in their thoughts and social interactions and consequences of their thoughts, words, and deeds. It is also a book about identity, claiming identity, inheriting identity, developing identity, and losing identity.

Jemmy, a London street child, cleaning under sawmills at age 5, is a cabin boy at thirteen, set adrift in the Pacific by sailors who fear his fever. He lands on the northern shore of Australia and for sixteen years survives as a fringe outsider to a tribe of Aborigine nomads. When he hears about white people his interest is peaked and he soon tries to locate them and live with them. But he is the `other', an outsider that never fits the community mould of these suspicious struggling Scottish pioneers who fear the unknown Aborigines and fears that Jemmy will somehow increase their vulnerability.

Janet, the child of pioneers who take Jemmy into their home, is perceptive and intelligent and finds her life work among the first bee keepers in Australia. She experiences the pain that fear can cause in a community and even in her senior years, as a scientist nun with a study of bee sign language, she is again introduced to the effects of fear on the fabric of a community.

Such a novel may frustrate some readers for characters talk past other characters, never really understanding or making connections. Malouf portrays this chronic world of misunderstanding with accuracy and pathos. In his books we see that we humans never really know each other, we have difficulty getting past our own projections and the projected defenses and masks of our contacts. We are vulnerable to the forces of fear which act like a contagion and spread quickly in human society. We have very few resources and defenses other than common sense which often fails in the face of fear, and compassion, which is a private solution in the face of public fear.

Jemmy evokes fear in many of the farmers and compassion in a few. It is this mystery of human life that Malouf explores with such exquisite penetration and which makes him a joy to read.
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secretriver
5.0 out of 5 stars Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2013
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Poetic and captivating- Beautiful writing which captures a period and interior life of the characters. I compared it with Kate Grenville's 'Secret River' and found 'Remembering Babylon' a more sensitive and humanitarian portrayal of early settlers. I particularly enjoyed the connections with nature and natural resources. I will read it again I'm sure.
One person found this helpful
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Rosanna
4.0 out of 5 stars Comprato per un esame all’estero
Reviewed in Italy on 22 March 2024
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Interessante ma non il mio genere, dubito che lo rileggerò mai.
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