The Biographer

Virginia Duigan

$19.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Vintage
01 April 2009

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Australian Fiction

A forthright investigation of human frailty and emotion with a plot that keeps you in its thrall until the last word.

A forthright investigation of human frailty and emotion with a plot that keeps you in its thrall until the last word.

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.

By: Virginia Duigan
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 195mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 329g
ISBN: 9781741667158
ISBN 10: 1741667151
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 April 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for The Biographer

"""A clear light on the ruthless habits of biography. Marvelous."" --Drusilla Modjeska, author, ""The Orchard"" ""Duigan's novel is a gripping study of the duel between the woman with a secret and the biographer who senses her fear. Beautifully paced, and even more sinister for its decorous setting, ""The Biographer"" offers the elements of a detective story and a debate on biography's methods and ethics in a sympathetically drawn human situation."" --""Age"" ""The backgrounds have a physical richness, and the portrayal of artistic life and conflicts is convincingly achieved."" --Christopher Koch, author, "" The Year of Living Dangerously"""

SALE ON NOW! PROMOTIONS

The Biographer

Virginia Duigan

$19.99

Paperback

Reviews for The Biographer

See Also

Contact Abbeys

Contact Galaxy

Contact Language

Contact Us

About ABBEY'S