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David Malouf
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Remembering Babylon Paperback – 19 May 1994

by David Malouf (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 201 ratings
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A searing and magnificent picture of Australia at the moment of its foundation, with early settlers staking out their small patch of land and terrified by the harsh and alien continent.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    19 May 1994
  5. Dimensions
    13 x 1.2 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    009930242X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099302421
  8. See all details
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Review

Malouf dares a style in which a metaphor clinches a whole personality, while the common act of looking at the light and plants of Australia produces plainly spiritual transformations. -- Francis Spufford ― The Guardian (London) Published On: 1993-05-25

Remembering Babylon is another rare chance to read a work by one of the few contemporary novelists who examines our constantly battered humanity and again and again brings out its lingering beauty -- Terry Goldie ― The Globe and Mail (Canada) Published On: 1993-05-22

There are passages of aching beauty in Remembering Babylon, and passages of shocking degradation. Mr. Malouf has written a wonderfully wise and moving novel, a novel that turns the history and mythic past of Australia into a dazzling fable of human hope and imperfection ― New York Times

A dazzling novel...The story has moments of such high intensity that they remain scorched in memory. As the story moves forward to its conclusion, we go unwillingly with it, not wanting this book, with the wisdom it contains, to stop speaking to us. ― The Toronto Star

The novel is beautifully written. Malouf's Queensland shimmers. -- Susan Geason ― The Sun Herald (Sydney, Austrailia) Published On: 1993-04-18

About the Author

David Malouf is the internationally acclaimed author of novels including The Great World (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' prize and the Prix Femina Etranger), Remembering Babylon (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), An Imaginary Life, Conversations at Curlow Creek, Dream Stuff ('These stories are pearls' Spectator), Every Move You Make ('Rare and luminous talent' Guardian), his autobiographical classic 12 Edmondstone Street and Ransom. His Collected Stories won the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award. In 2008 Malouf was the Scottish Arts' Council Muriel Spark International Fellow. He was born in 1934 and was brought up in Brisbane.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (19 May 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 009930242X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099302421
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13 x 1.2 x 19.8 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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