Holden's Performance

Murray Bail

dic 2011 · Text Publishing

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Holden's Performance is the sprawling tale of Holden Shadbolt, a guileless and matter-of-fact man, who passes through the Australian landscape, seeing the world around him flickering by in black and white. He develops a reputation for silence and reliability, and for an amazing photographic memory, making him useful to men of power and women who appear to need protection. His life compels him from the straight tramlines of Adelaide to the irregularities of Sydney, and on to Canberra, where streets form ever-decreasing circles.

Holden Shadbolt is surrounded by flamboyant characters: Frank McBee, ebullient ex-corporal, scrap dealer and tycoon; Vern Hartnett, earnest proof-reader and provider of a factual diet; the comely usherette next door, teacher of the facts of life; and finally Colonel Light, who beckons Holden to join his team of bodyguards to prime ministers.

'Superbly written; extraordinarily wide-ranging and inventive.' Times on Sunday

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Born in Adelaide in 1941, Murray Bail now lives in Sydney. Bail’s short stories have been published widely both in Australia and the UK, and have appeared in the New Yorker magazine. His first novel, Homesickness (1980), won two major literary awards: the National Book Council Award for Australian literature and the Age Book of the Year Award. His much-loved novel Eucalyptus was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize and The Miles Franklin Award. His most recent, acclaimed books are Holden's Performance and The Pages.