The Conversations at Curlow Creek - Couverture souple

"Beyond the futility of the law and the loneliness of the human condition, Malouf distils a triumphant beauty.... [His] prose, rich and mellifluous, conjures myth and memory to climax in an ending as elusive as the apparent reversal of the moon above an alien night." -The Globe and Mail

"Enthralling... Malouf pulls from this tightly restricted set of circumstances a far-ranging tale of high emotion that unfolds in a series of rhapsodic passages." -NOW

"Malouf has created a journey into human truth.... He strips away illusions and deference and allows two men to find common humanity against the vastness of a menacing and unbridled environment. In rich, poetic language, he turns a sporadic night-long conversation ... into a poignant and searing summation of man's place in the universe." -Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"Compelling and powerful.... This is a terse, intelligent and rewarding work that does not slip easily from the reader's mind." -Hamilton Spectator

A new work of fiction by the author of Remembering Babylon. It is 1827, and, in a remote hut high on the plains of New South Wales, two strangers spend the night in talk. One, an illiterate Irishman, and ex-convict and bushranger, is to be hanged at dawn. The other is the police officer who has been sent to supervise the hanging. As the night wears on, the two men share memories and uncover unlikely connections between their lives. 240 pp. Author tour. 20,000 print.

From the Hardcover edition.