The Pages

‘A curious and intriguing novel of contraries, whose central theme is the opposition between philosophy and psychology. Murray Bail plays a laconic, self-concealing game, cunningly luring the reader in to his interlinked stories…The spell is most powerfully cast in the brilliant quiet skill of the writing, which can make the world come alive on the page, as in this startling, one-paragraph storm.’ * Hermione Lee, Guardian UK *
‘The most extraordinary piece of fiction published in this country this year.’ * Monthly *
‘[An] extremely sophisticated novel of ideas…The novel’s structure is a pattern of interleaved reflection, story and philosophical speculation about love and being, grief and understanding…It is a novel of questions, of irreconcilables, of eccentricity and of elusive wisdom.’ * Sydney Morning Herald *
‘The Pages is a nicely written, wonderfully entertaining novel with optional depths about the discoveries of an Australian who devotes his adult life to an introspective search for truth. … Philosophy is a big, difficult subject—there is none bigger—that Bail depicts thoughtfully and with sympathetic humour.’ * Telegraph *
‘One of the finest and most sensitive meditations on the condition of being I know of. At times the human condition is remarked in a manner as finely observed as it is in the best of Rilke’s prose.’ * Alex Miller, Age *

Murray Bail lives in Sydney. His first book, The Drover’s Wife and Other Stories, was published in 1975. He has won numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Eucalyptus. His most recent novel is The Voyage.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.