My Brother Jack: A Novel
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
My Brother Jack is a landmark of Australian literature — a raw, unflinching portrait of two brothers forged in the aftermath of World War I, set against the sprawling backdrop of a changing Melbourne. George Johnston chronicles the lives of David Meredith and his brother Jack: David, the sensitive, ambitious young man who escapes his working-class origins through journalism and art, and Jack, the quintessential Australian hero — brave, loyal, and ultimately betrayed by the world that shaped him. The novel captures the social and cultural upheaval of Australia across the 1920s through to World War II, painting a vivid and deeply human picture of a nation searching for its identity. Johnston writes with autobiographical intensity, drawing heavily from his own life to craft a narrative that is simultaneously intimate and epic in scope. The tension between authenticity and ambition, loyalty and self-preservation, runs through every chapter like a live wire, making this far more than a coming-of-age story — it is a profound meditation on guilt, success, and the cost of reinventing oneself. Winner of Australia's prestigious Miles Franklin Award in 1964, the novel remains a cornerstone of the Australian literary canon, and its closing pages leave the reader haunted by the question of what we sacrifice on the altar of our own becoming.
Author: George Johnston
Format: Hardback
Published: 1966, Collins, St James's Place, London
Genre: Modern fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
My Brother Jack is a landmark of Australian literature — a raw, unflinching portrait of two brothers forged in the aftermath of World War I, set against the sprawling backdrop of a changing Melbourne. George Johnston chronicles the lives of David Meredith and his brother Jack: David, the sensitive, ambitious young man who escapes his working-class origins through journalism and art, and Jack, the quintessential Australian hero — brave, loyal, and ultimately betrayed by the world that shaped him. The novel captures the social and cultural upheaval of Australia across the 1920s through to World War II, painting a vivid and deeply human picture of a nation searching for its identity. Johnston writes with autobiographical intensity, drawing heavily from his own life to craft a narrative that is simultaneously intimate and epic in scope. The tension between authenticity and ambition, loyalty and self-preservation, runs through every chapter like a live wire, making this far more than a coming-of-age story — it is a profound meditation on guilt, success, and the cost of reinventing oneself. Winner of Australia's prestigious Miles Franklin Award in 1964, the novel remains a cornerstone of the Australian literary canon, and its closing pages leave the reader haunted by the question of what we sacrifice on the altar of our own becoming.