Böcker av Robert Dessaix

Shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature Gold Medal and the Victorian Premier’s Literary AwardsHighly commended for the FAW Christina Stead Award, the Age Book of the Year and the National Book Council CUB Banjo AwardsAdopted as a baby towards the end of World War II, Robert Dessaix grew up haunted by ‘a shaft of silence’ surrounding the question of his natural mother’s identity, and of his own identity and sexuality. In this touching memoir, he recounts the story of a most unusual childhood on Sydney’s North Shore, of his fascination with Russia and the years he spent studying in Cold War Moscow, and of his restless wanderings around the world.Praise for A Mother's Disgrace by Robert Dessaix‘One of the most intelligently moving autobiographical narratives I have ever read. A book that is fascinating, engrossing … And a book that invites challenge.’ The Age‘A journey of identity by a virtuoso in language and master of narrative control … a brave, moving, funny, enthralling book.’ The Canberra Times

One Sunday afternoon in a secluded valley in Normandy, Robert Dessaix chanced upon the castle where the 20th-century French writer Andre Gide spent his childhood. Recalling the excitement he felt when he first read Gide as a teenager, Dessaix sets off to recapture what it was that once drew him so strongly to this enigmatic figure.On a magic carpet ride from Lisbon to the edge of the Sahara, from Paris to the south of France and Algiers, he takes us to the places where the Nobel Prize winning author, in ways still scandalous to modern sensibilities, lived out his unconventional ideas about love, marriage, sexuality and religion.Praise for Arabesques by Robert Dessaix‘Magical and inviting … these arabesques afford the reader inordinate pleasure.’ Livres-Hebdo (France)‘Surrender to the ravishments first, get lost, skid with thrilled indecisiveness across the mosaic tile of each page. Venture out with the author onto the roads and dizzying crossroads he negotiates as he plots a course between past and present, old haunts and new horizons, in the lands of Araby …’ The Age

‘House in Gastouri for rent for 2 mths. Occupant travelling. Reasonable rent.’In a village on the island of Corfu, alone in the cottage of a man he’s never met, a young Australian actor pieces together the strange life story of the Australian writer whose house he’s living in. As he explores his surroundings and makes new friends, his own life begins to appear to him like an illuminating shadowplay of his absent host’s.Set in the physical landscapes of the Greek islands, Adelaide and the suburbs of London, Robert Dessaix’s second novel is about the nature of friendship, love, the ordinary and extraordinary. At its core is a perfectly placed meditation on literary landscapes – Homer, Sappho, Cavafy and Chekhov – and the part art can play in making our lives beautiful.Praise for Corfu by Robert Dessaix‘Robert Dessaix is one of Australia’s finest writers, as this sad, funny and moving novel proves.’ John Banville‘Robert Dessaix is some kind of national treasure because he represents with a kind of Helpmann-like elegance and virtuosity the side of our sensibilities we publicly repress.’ Australian Book Review