A sensitive treatment of the novels of one of Australia's most significant writers.

Randolph Stow's mournful, bitter novels mostly detail the lonely experiences of white people in the most distant parts of Australia or the Pacific, separated from their own culture but forever removed from complete connection with the culture they have usurped. His last works are relocated, like their author, to England, but still draw from the torments and disconnections Stow felt when dealing with society. Hassall teases out the plot and characters of each novel, analysing it from both a literary and biographical perspective. I am looking forward now to reading Suzanne Falkiner's recent biography of Stow, to put the rest of the pieces together.

There is a sad epilogue to this volume. Stow published his first four novels before he turned 30 - a truly remarkable achievement! When Hassall published Strange Country in 1986, Stow had just turned 50, with his most recent novel being The Suburbs of Hell. Hassall notes that the story of Randolph Stow the author is far from over.

Sadly, it was. Although Stow lived for another 25 years, he never published anything again. The advantage - I suppose - is that this volume remains complete, but I feel a sense of loss wondering what other haunting pieces of literature may have been inside Stow's mind, which we will never know. ( )