The Boys in the Island
NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.
Author: C.J. Koch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 216
Christopher Koch comes home to Vintage! Vintage is excited and proud to announce the publication of Chrisopher Koch's impressive backlist of titles: The Boys in the Island Crossing the Gap Out of Ireland The Boys in the Island is Christopher Koch's first ever novel, a beautiful, lilting coming-of-age story set in the 1940s and 50s in Hobart and Melbourne Francis Cullen, growing up in the island of Tasmania, is outwardly a very ordinary boy. But his inner life is dominated by dreams of a place he calls the Otherland: a transfigured world beyond the real one. In childhood, he glimpses it in the landscapes of his native land, and when he falls in love with a country girl, the dream is central to his feeling for her. After Heather is lost to him, Francis becomes more and more under the influence of Lewie Matthews - a youth whose ambition is to become a criminal. Now the Otherland's location is seen as the mainland of Australia, where a mythical life of wildness and crime beckons. Francis, Lewie and their friends pursue this life in Melbourne - until a climax of destruction shatters the dream. Christopher Koch's first novel moves always on the level of poetry, resembling in its themes Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality. It records those visions seen in childhood which in adulthood are lost forever. Rave reveiws for The Boys in the Island 'Memorably vivid and moving ...the author has the rare capacity for total recall of childhood imaginings, with all their scope and poignancy' The Age 'Another of those astonishing novels that have gone a long way toward changing the nature of Australian fiction ...its strenth lies in the vivid nature of Mr Koch's writing.' Sydney Morning Herald 'The boy's .. fresh openness to experience as he restlessly pursues his dream ...is memorable.' Oxford Companion to Australian Literature 'Holds our sympathies and intrigues, too, by the glimpse of what Australia means its younger generation.' Times Literary Supplement 'His style has a compelling urge.' The Scotsman
Author: C.J. Koch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 216
Christopher Koch comes home to Vintage! Vintage is excited and proud to announce the publication of Chrisopher Koch's impressive backlist of titles: The Boys in the Island Crossing the Gap Out of Ireland The Boys in the Island is Christopher Koch's first ever novel, a beautiful, lilting coming-of-age story set in the 1940s and 50s in Hobart and Melbourne Francis Cullen, growing up in the island of Tasmania, is outwardly a very ordinary boy. But his inner life is dominated by dreams of a place he calls the Otherland: a transfigured world beyond the real one. In childhood, he glimpses it in the landscapes of his native land, and when he falls in love with a country girl, the dream is central to his feeling for her. After Heather is lost to him, Francis becomes more and more under the influence of Lewie Matthews - a youth whose ambition is to become a criminal. Now the Otherland's location is seen as the mainland of Australia, where a mythical life of wildness and crime beckons. Francis, Lewie and their friends pursue this life in Melbourne - until a climax of destruction shatters the dream. Christopher Koch's first novel moves always on the level of poetry, resembling in its themes Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality. It records those visions seen in childhood which in adulthood are lost forever. Rave reveiws for The Boys in the Island 'Memorably vivid and moving ...the author has the rare capacity for total recall of childhood imaginings, with all their scope and poignancy' The Age 'Another of those astonishing novels that have gone a long way toward changing the nature of Australian fiction ...its strenth lies in the vivid nature of Mr Koch's writing.' Sydney Morning Herald 'The boy's .. fresh openness to experience as he restlessly pursues his dream ...is memorable.' Oxford Companion to Australian Literature 'Holds our sympathies and intrigues, too, by the glimpse of what Australia means its younger generation.' Times Literary Supplement 'His style has a compelling urge.' The Scotsman
Description
NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.
Author: C.J. Koch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 216
Christopher Koch comes home to Vintage! Vintage is excited and proud to announce the publication of Chrisopher Koch's impressive backlist of titles: The Boys in the Island Crossing the Gap Out of Ireland The Boys in the Island is Christopher Koch's first ever novel, a beautiful, lilting coming-of-age story set in the 1940s and 50s in Hobart and Melbourne Francis Cullen, growing up in the island of Tasmania, is outwardly a very ordinary boy. But his inner life is dominated by dreams of a place he calls the Otherland: a transfigured world beyond the real one. In childhood, he glimpses it in the landscapes of his native land, and when he falls in love with a country girl, the dream is central to his feeling for her. After Heather is lost to him, Francis becomes more and more under the influence of Lewie Matthews - a youth whose ambition is to become a criminal. Now the Otherland's location is seen as the mainland of Australia, where a mythical life of wildness and crime beckons. Francis, Lewie and their friends pursue this life in Melbourne - until a climax of destruction shatters the dream. Christopher Koch's first novel moves always on the level of poetry, resembling in its themes Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality. It records those visions seen in childhood which in adulthood are lost forever. Rave reveiws for The Boys in the Island 'Memorably vivid and moving ...the author has the rare capacity for total recall of childhood imaginings, with all their scope and poignancy' The Age 'Another of those astonishing novels that have gone a long way toward changing the nature of Australian fiction ...its strenth lies in the vivid nature of Mr Koch's writing.' Sydney Morning Herald 'The boy's .. fresh openness to experience as he restlessly pursues his dream ...is memorable.' Oxford Companion to Australian Literature 'Holds our sympathies and intrigues, too, by the glimpse of what Australia means its younger generation.' Times Literary Supplement 'His style has a compelling urge.' The Scotsman
Author: C.J. Koch
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 216
Christopher Koch comes home to Vintage! Vintage is excited and proud to announce the publication of Chrisopher Koch's impressive backlist of titles: The Boys in the Island Crossing the Gap Out of Ireland The Boys in the Island is Christopher Koch's first ever novel, a beautiful, lilting coming-of-age story set in the 1940s and 50s in Hobart and Melbourne Francis Cullen, growing up in the island of Tasmania, is outwardly a very ordinary boy. But his inner life is dominated by dreams of a place he calls the Otherland: a transfigured world beyond the real one. In childhood, he glimpses it in the landscapes of his native land, and when he falls in love with a country girl, the dream is central to his feeling for her. After Heather is lost to him, Francis becomes more and more under the influence of Lewie Matthews - a youth whose ambition is to become a criminal. Now the Otherland's location is seen as the mainland of Australia, where a mythical life of wildness and crime beckons. Francis, Lewie and their friends pursue this life in Melbourne - until a climax of destruction shatters the dream. Christopher Koch's first novel moves always on the level of poetry, resembling in its themes Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality. It records those visions seen in childhood which in adulthood are lost forever. Rave reveiws for The Boys in the Island 'Memorably vivid and moving ...the author has the rare capacity for total recall of childhood imaginings, with all their scope and poignancy' The Age 'Another of those astonishing novels that have gone a long way toward changing the nature of Australian fiction ...its strenth lies in the vivid nature of Mr Koch's writing.' Sydney Morning Herald 'The boy's .. fresh openness to experience as he restlessly pursues his dream ...is memorable.' Oxford Companion to Australian Literature 'Holds our sympathies and intrigues, too, by the glimpse of what Australia means its younger generation.' Times Literary Supplement 'His style has a compelling urge.' The Scotsman
The Boys in the Island