Gerald Murnane Biography

Australian writer, born in Melbourne. The rural landscape of Victoria is evoked in several of his novels. Tamarisk Row (1974) concerns a father who attempts to win a fortune with his racehorse while his son retreats into a world of fantasy; in subsequent novels escapism becomes a compulsive search for inner fulfilment. A strong sense of landscape pervades Murnane's work, notably in A Lifetime on Clouds (1976) where a youth travels the landscapes of America but dreams of a past Australia. The Plains (1982), narrated by a film-maker, concerns the inner worlds of the nameless inhabitants of a fertile area of central Australia. Inland (1988) continues the use of imaginary worlds. Landscape with Landscape (1985) is a series of six stories, and Velvet Waters (1990) is a collection of short stories offering an oblique commentary on Australia's cultural past and present. His most recent fiction includes Emerald Blue (1995).