The Vintage and the Gleaning

‘This is one of the most irresistible novels I’ve read in a long time. The writing is powerful, challenging and utterly authentic. I feel as if I’ve been waiting for years to read this strangely beguiling novel.’
– Alex Miller
‘A highly accomplished and rewarding work.’
* Australian Bookseller & Publisher *
‘There’s a lyricism in the language and a depth to the emotions laidbare here that’s utterly irresistible. Add to that a genuine and honestdepiction of Australian working men and what you have is quite aremarkable novel…The Vintage and the Gleaning is an impressive novel,one which many seasoned writers would be proud to call their own. Thatit comes from a first-time novelist is astounding.’
* Canberra Times *
‘the gentle title belies the tough beauty of Chambers’ prose. This novelis written with sinewy strength. It creates its characters with smallbut powerful gestures. They are gloriously understated. The Vintage andthe Gleaning speaks quietly to powerful effect. It is a book whosesilences are golden. It is both perceptive and compassionate. Itunderstands the hard stuff and embraces hard people.’ * Age *
‘The novel’s lengthy passages of dialogue instill the book with a sharp playfulness; Chambers could have a future not only as a novelist but also as a dramatist.’
* Weekend Australian *
’[The Vintage and the Gleaning] impress[es] with a visceral appreciation for the routines of work…the true voice of Chambers’ resonantly Faulknerian sagacomes through the minutely detailed, deeply authentic evocation of worklife among the vines, in the sharing shed and in a plethora of countrypubs.’
* Adelaide Advertiser *
‘a beautiful, harrowing novel about lives wasted and awry.’
* Australian Literary Review *
‘Beautifully written and sketching the Australian landscape and weatherconditions with authenticity and insight, there’s a mood of nihilism asin Albert Camus’ The Outsider, stirred with the descriptive prose of TimWinton in Dirt Music…a rewarding read.’
* Courier Mail *
‘Without a doubt the most distinguished first novel by an Australianwriter I have read for a long time…by turns harsh and lyrical, satiricand compassionate, and ultimately tragic.’
* Sydney Morning Herald *
‘A beautiful, harrowing novel.’
* Australian *
‘one of the best evocations I’ve read of both the hard beauty of Australia’s warm wine landscapes and the hard urgency of Australian male drinking culture.’ * Australian Magazine *
‘a small gem of a book. The content is secondary to the style which is simple, pared down and precise. However this does give the novel a slight feeling of airlessness as you tiptoe through pages of beautiful prose, nodding in admiration at lovingly rendered descriptions.’ * Time Out UK *
‘Chamber’s understated account of a retired sheep shearer in a small Australian town deserves a wide readership…The rhythms of this life, the work, the terse banter among the men, and the relentless desperation…are economically conveyed…and the descriptions of ghost gums, the malignancy of circling crows and the omnipresent bleached, exhausted landscape are superb.’ * Guardian *
‘This terrific Australian first novel is set in a working world. Smithy is an old man on his last legs, labouring in a vineyard. He notices the beauty of the land around him. He notices and observes the people around him and is haunted by the sudden clarity of his past. He steps in to help Charlotte, a desperate young woman, and she gives a little purpose to his life. Chambers writes very powerfully about the sadness of memory.’ * The Times *

Jeremy Chambers’ first novel, The Vintage and the Gleaning, was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the Colin Roderick Award and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Quebec Booksellers’ Award. His short fiction has been published in Griffith REVIEW, Higher Arc, Review of Australian Fiction and The White Review. His second novel, Suburbia, is due to be published in October 2017.

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