A Family Madness - Softcover

Keneally, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140097961 ISBN 13: 9780140097962

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1987

Synopsis

Inspired by a true incident, this powerful and disturbing novel focuses on Rudi Kabbel, a survivor of Nazi-occupied Belorussia, and Terry Delaney, a young Australian rugby player who falls in love with Kabbel's daughter. With the optimism and innocence of those unscathed by war, Delaney gropes to understand Kabbel's outlook on life and all too slowly grasps its implications.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty novels since. They include Schindler's Ark, which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and was subsequently made into the film Schindler's List, and The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates and Gossip From The Forest, each of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent novels are The Daughters Of Mars, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2013, and Shame and the Captives. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including his memoir Homebush Boy, Searching for Schindler and Australians. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney.

From Publishers Weekly:

Keneally, who won England's Booker Prize for Schindler's List, here offers an intricately constructed, labyrinthine tale that unfolds on three levels. A traditional third-person narration chronicles events taking place in Penrith, Australia, in the early 1980s. Terry Delaney, a professional rugby player who takes a part-time job as a security guard, meets Rudi Kabbel, an emigre who runs his own security business. Their lives intersect in various ways, especially after the married Terry becomes involved with Rudi's daughter. Rudi is an eccentric, deeply scarred personality as a result of his tragic past in war-torn Europe, which is recounted in trenchant chapters entitled "Radislaw Kabbel's History of the Kabbeleski Family." A more informed and shocking perspective on the horrors of the war is found in excerpts from Rudi's father Stansislaw's journal. Along with Rudi's history, they set the stage for the present-day demonstration of what is indeed a family madnessa madness that Terry must contend with in the novel's stunning conclusion. Keneally brilliantly combines three diverse narrative techniques, and while the book is not light or easy reading, it is enormously rewarding.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0140097961
• ISBN 13: 9780140097962
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336