Taken from www.abbeys.com.au:

Description

A hauntingly beautiful meditation on the land, the past, exile and friendship, Landscape of Farewellis the powerful new novel from acclaimed Australian author, Alex Miller.It is the story of Max Otto, an elderly German academic. After the death of his much-loved wife and his recognition that he will never write the great study of history that was to be his life's crowning work, Max believes his life is all but over. Everything changes, though, when his valedictory lecture is challenged by Professor Vita McLelland, a feisty young Australian Aboriginal academic visiting Germany. Their meeting and growing friendship sets Max on a journey that would have seemed unthinkable just a few short weeks earlier.When, at Vita's invitation, Max travels to Australia, he forms a deep friendship with her uncle, Aboriginal elder Dougald Gnapun. It is a friendship that not only gives new meaning and purpose to Max, but which teaches him the profound importance of truth-telling in reconciliation with his own and his country's past.Following Alex Miller's Miles Franklin-winning Journey to the Stone Country, Landscape of Farewellis a wise and grave novel of power, beauty and truth.Praise for Alex Miller'[The Ancestor Game] is a wonderful novel of stunning intricacy and great beauty. ' - Michael Ondaatje'Miller is a master storyteller.' - Drusilla Modjeska

I've purchased this book to participate in DrCris' 2008 Miles Franklin Shortlist Challenge.

Bookring order:
1. jubby
2. livrecache
3. freelunch
4. DrCris
5. tqd
6. Fleebo

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Ah...I could type you a little bio of the story right here.
I could even give you my impressions and opinion of the story... but it has taken me weeks to read and finish this book and it MUST leave the house to day, or I fear it never will!

Posting on to Livrecache.

This book too had gone to my old address. I now know that mail re-direct does not apply to parcels. I now know also that there are some very nice people in the world who went to the trouble of tracking me down. The family had been stock piling packages for months, and today got a parcel with your phone number on it, and now all is sorted!

Thanks so much, jubby. I'll read this as quickly as I can so that the ring can continue.

"Is it history that tells us who we are? Or is it the story we tell ourselves - humanity's great sagas, myths and legends, songs and poems and tales of battles over blood and soil - that defines who we are? As Miller [shows], it is a conundrum with profound consequences - he leaves the answer to us."

A fascinating book, about which anything I say won't do justice to it, or else I'll leave things that I meant to say unsaid. I do think it's a fairly improbable story, but contrived so well that I'm prepared to overlook the unlikeliness of it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

A bookring on its way to its next reader. Enjoy! (Don't you hate that when they say that in restaurants?)

received today. thanks livrecache, and thanks jubby for making this one available.

I guess this book was well-written, it just wasn't for me. neither the characters nor the story engaged me on any level and as a result it seemed to take forever to read.

I'll send it on soon with some other books I have for DrCris

posted to DrCris on June 9th

Arrived safely, with a bundle of Miles Franklin bookrings. Looks like I may be a hold up for a while. I will read these in order of interest, as the all arrived on the same day. Based on the reveiws, this one may be down the list a way.

I still have this book, but have been very hectic for a while. I haven't read it, and I am planning to send it on. I'm sure I will get a chance to read it again at some stage (even if not this copy).

Turned up in the mail today, thanks DrCris! Onto Mt TBR it goes (*gulp*)...

A poignant meditation on loss and secrets that can alienate families. This is the story of history professor Max Otto, who was a child in Germany during the second World War and whose life has been deeply affected by the subsequent guilt, most especially by the fact that he never knew exactly what his own father did during the war. As the book opens, he's grieving for his recently dead wife and planning on killing himself as soon as he's finished giving a paper at a local history conference. There he meets a young Australian academic, Professor Vita McLelland, and rediscovers his passion for life.

The rest of the book takes place in outback Queensland as Max spends a few weeks with Vita's Uncle Dougald. Max and Dougald get along very well, although - or perhaps because - they are both taciturn men, and the time they spend together ends up being far more profound and dramatic than they were expecting.

One of the interesting themes of this book was that of massacres. Max, although an innocent to World War Two's atrocities, feels deep guilt for them. And Dougald's ancestor was a powerful man in his Aboriginal community, another group of people who know all too well about massacres. And Max always yearned to write about such things as a historian, but was never able to because of his own guilt and took the easier path academically into medieval history.

I found this overall a bit too slow and stately, it focussed very much on the characters' inner lives, and I generally enjoy books that are less psychologically introspective. But the characters were interesting (although I never did quite understand Vita), and it was beautifully written.

I have fleebo's address, so shall pop this in the post to her asap. Thanks for sharing this book, jubby!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Passing on to Fleebo tonight. (Finally!)

Happy reading!

Received from tqd, thank you!

I enjoyed the meandering pace of this book. It is beautifully written.

I thought that Vita's tantrum at the beginning of the book was indicative of her own sense of self-worth though, and nothing else... "You didn't talk about MY experience! It should be about ME!" Of course the Aboriginal people of Australia were the victims of near-genocide, and white Australians should acknowledge that far more than they do at present. But expecting a German to place it on the high end of the same scale measuring thousands of years of larger, more local massacres is pretty damn vain.

Someone forceful like Vita had to be in the story in order to get Max to travel, but she was irritating to me.

Dougald, on the other hand, was a wonderful bloke. I like quiet, practical people who make you sit up and take notice on the rare occasions that they say something. You know they have so much more to share, but you just have to wait... you have to earn it.

Thank you very much everyone.

This book has made its way home and will be ready for a new adventure shortly.

Yes, I know that I've got the location information wrong, but do you have any idea how long it took me just to find the my way to that point?!!!

I entered this book in The OZ Virtual Book Box over on www.librarything.com (which is moving way too slow for my liking!), where it was selected by Crimson-tide.

So, posting off to the ever lovely Crimson-tide. I do hope that you enjoy it.

Received today from the also ever lovely jubby as part of the OZ VBB.
Thanks very much.