David Foster Biography

Australian writer, born in Sydney, educated at the University of Sydney and the Australian National University. His work eschews realism for satirical allegory, parable, and comic pastiche and has attracted critical attention for its exuberant inventiveness. His first novel, The Pure Land (1974), centres on three generations of an Australian family beginning with Albert Manwaring, a photographer who leaves Australia for America in search of fulfilment; this is followed by the experiences of his daughter in England, and finally those of his grandson who returns to Australia. Moonlite (1981) is a political satire set partly in nineteenth-century Scotland and partly in the Australian colonies; Plumbum (1985) is a satire about ‘The Last Great Heavy Metal Rock Band of the Western World’. Dog Rock (1985) is narrated by the postman of a country town and features a series of murders; the story continues in The Pale Blue Crotchet Coathanger Cover (1988). His other works include The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross (1986), Mates of Mars (1991), and A Slab of Fosters (1994); Testostero (1987), a pastiche of Goldoni's The Venetian Twins; Escape to Reality (1977), short stories; The Hitting Wall (1989), two novellas; and The Fleeing Atalanta (1975), a collection of poems.