'In the darkest days of World War II, Ethel Malley lives a quiet life on Dalmar Street, Croydon. One day she finds a collection of poems written by her late (and secretive) brother, Ern. She sends them to Max Harris, co-editor of modernist magazine Angry Penguins. He reads them and declares Ern an undiscovered genius. Determined to help publish the poems, Ethel moves in with Max and soon becomes a presence he can't understand, or control. He gets the feeling something's not quite right. About Ethel. About Ern. Then two poets come forward claiming they wrote Ern's poems.
'What follows is part-truth, part-hoax, a dark mystery as surreal as any of Ern's poems. Max wants to believe in Ern, but to do this he has to believe in Ethel, and attempt to understand her increasingly unpredictable behaviour. Then he's charged with publishing Ern's 'pornographic' poems. The questions of truth and lies, freedom of speech, and tradition versus modernism play out in a stifling Adelaide courtroom, around the nation's wirelesses, and in Max's head.
'Based on Australia's greatest literary hoax, Sincerely, Ethel Malley explores the nature of creativity, and human frailty. It drips with the anaemic blood of Australian literature, the gristle of a culture we've never really trusted.'
Source : publisher's blurb
Epigraph : "Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word - every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus." Aeschylus (disputed), Prometheus Bound
Epigraph :
"For it is not good to be a god on earth
Not knowing the language, nor the dinginess of men,
Unable to petal the paper flowers of flesh
To call a prayer and hear return 'Amen'."
- Max Harris, (from) At the Circus
Epigraph :
"It is finished
It is finished
IT IS THE MERCY"
-Donald Crowhurst
'Ethel Malley is the unsung heroine of the Ern Malley affair, which is the best-known of the many Australian literary hoaxes and truly one of the grandest deceptions in literary history. Or at least she languished in obscurity until Stephen Orr, who has long been fascinated by Ern, decided to sing her raucous song in his latest novel, the author’s tenth.' (Introduction)
'‘Ern Malley’ – a great literary creation and the occasion of a famous literary hoax – has continued to attract fascinated attention ever since he burst upon the Australian poetry scene more than seventy years ago. But his sister Ethel has attracted little notice, she who set off the whole saga by writing to Max Harris, the young editor of Angry Penguins, asking whether the poems left by her late brother were any good, and signing herself ‘sincerely, Ethel Malley’.' (Introduction)
'‘Ern Malley’ – a great literary creation and the occasion of a famous literary hoax – has continued to attract fascinated attention ever since he burst upon the Australian poetry scene more than seventy years ago. But his sister Ethel has attracted little notice, she who set off the whole saga by writing to Max Harris, the young editor of Angry Penguins, asking whether the poems left by her late brother were any good, and signing herself ‘sincerely, Ethel Malley’.' (Introduction)
'Ethel Malley is the unsung heroine of the Ern Malley affair, which is the best-known of the many Australian literary hoaxes and truly one of the grandest deceptions in literary history. Or at least she languished in obscurity until Stephen Orr, who has long been fascinated by Ern, decided to sing her raucous song in his latest novel, the author’s tenth.' (Introduction)
