The Pages

Murray Bail’s first novel since Eucalyptus is a beguiling meditation on friendship and love, on men and women, on landscape and the difficulties of thought itself.What are THE PAGES?On a family sheep station in the interior of Australia, a brother and sister work the property while their reclusive brother Wesley Antill, spends years toiling away in one of the sheds, writing a philosophy. Now he has died. Erica, a philosopher, is sent from Sydney to appraise his work. Accompanying her is Sophie who needs a distraction from a string of failed relationships. Her field is psychoanalysis. These two women, each with a different view of the world, meet a situation they have not experienced before — with surprising results.From the Hardcover edition.

BAIL, MURRAY

Literature & Fiction

Vintage Books

Holden's Performance

Contemporary

Penguin??Books

The gruff widower Holland has two possessions he cherishes above all others: his sprawling property of eucalyptus trees and his ravishingly beautiful daughter, Ellen. When Ellen turns nineteen Holland makes an announcement: she may marry only the man who can correctly name the species of each of the hundreds of gum trees on his property. Ellen is uninterested in the many suitors who arrive from around the world, until one afternoon she chances on a strange, handsome young man resting under a Coolibah tree. In the days that follow, he spins dozens of tales set in cities, deserts, and faraway countries. As the contest draws to a close, Ellen and the stranger's meetings become more erotic, the stories more urgent. Murray Bail's rich narrative is filled with unexpected wisdom about art, feminine beauty, landscape, and language. Eucalyptus is a shimmering love story that affirms the beguiling power of storytelling itself.

Eucalyptus: A Novel

Harvest Books

The sprawling tale of Holden Shadbolt, a guileless and matter-of-fact man, as he passes through the cities and landscapes of Australia.

Holden's Performance: A Novel

Picador

From the “world-class Australian novelist” (The New York Times) comes a deft, angular, and highly entertaining collection of stories. “The Seduction of My Sister” tells of the increasingly bizarre events between siblings when a new family moves in across the street, while “Healing” recalls a vanished time when a boy’s headlong, innocent rush into certain disaster could be averted by a simple miracle. A man named Huebler decides to photograph everyone alive, and an unassuming piano-tuner is sent to the center of Australia in 1943 to contribute to the war effort. A captivating, piquant collection from a master of the craft.

Camouflage: Stories

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book
 A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
On a property in New South Wales, a widower named Holland lives with his daughter, Ellen. Over the years as she grows into a beautiful woman, Holland plants hundreds of different eucalyptus trees on his land, filling the landscape, making a virtual outdoor museum of trees. When Ellen is nineteen, Holland announces that she may only marry the man who can correctly name the species of each and every gum tree on his property. A strange contest begins, and Ellen is left unmoved by her suitors until she chances on a strange young man resting under the Coolibah tree whose stories will amaze and dazzle her. A modern fairy tale, and an unforgettable love story, that bristles with spiky truths and unexpected wisdom about art, feminine beauty, landscape, and language. Eucalyptus affirms the seductive power of storytelling itself.

United States

Homesickness

Macmillan

Superb -- and surprising -- new fiction from the Australian master A man named Huebler decides to photograph everyone alive. A suburban father perches in his son's tree house to spy on his friends. A dentist recognizes his estranged wife in a famous painting. "The Seduction of My Sister" tells of the increasingly bizarre events involving a boy and his sister when a new family moves in across the street. And in "Camouflage," Eric Banerjee, an unassuming Adelaide piano tuner, is sent north to the center of Australia in 1943 to make his contribution to the war effort. It is clear in all these remarkable stories that Murray Bail -- already celebrated for his novels -- has also extended the manifold possibilities of short fiction. Each of his stories creates a strange and fascinating new world, and none of them is easily forgotten. Bail's work in this collection is deft, angular, and very entertaining; the mastery of his art is fully revealed with wry humor and haunting power.

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

A farmer announces that his daughter may only wed the man who can correctly name the species of each and every eucalyptus tree on his property, a decision that is complicated when Ellen chances upon a mysterious young man

Eucalyptus

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

The wildly funny novel-never published before in the United States-that put Murray Bail on the literary map. Thirteen men and women on a package tour travel the world, visiting museums, hotels, and shops. They are like tourists anywhere, except that wherever they go-Africa, England, South America, New York, or Russia-they find nothing is as it seems. Challenged by unexpected propositions, differences, and subtleties of life and history, Murray Bail's tourists are in turn repelled, attracted, altered. As the Nobel laureate Patrick White put it, Homesickness, with its "tourists permanently traipsing through the museums of their own obsessions," is the work of "a visual writer with great understanding of sensual man." It is surely one of the most distinctive, original Australian novels of recent times.

Homesickness: A Novel

Humor & Satire

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Books by BAIL, MURRAY

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BAIL, MURRAY. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Pages

Holden's Performance

Eucalyptus: A Novel

Holden's Performance: A Novel

Camouflage: Stories

Eucalyptus: A Novel

Homesickness

Camouflage: Stories

Eucalyptus

Homesickness: A Novel