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y separately published work icon The Diplomat single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 The Diplomat
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'1991. Fresh out of detox, Edward Degraves returns to Melbourne looking for a clean start. All he needs is one last trip to The Diplomat, a seedy motel known best for its drug dealers and eccentrics. But sobriety is both torment and a gift. As Edward revisits old haunts and faces people from his past, his failures follow close behind: ruined relationships, an abortive career as an artist and - looming over everything - the death of his beloved wife Gertrude. Fraught with grief and regret, The Diplomat is a powerful story of love and recovery, and the choices that lie between self-destruction and redemption.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Author's note: For those dum-dum boys who didn't quite make it. And the ones who did.
  • Selected as one of the ABR Podcast's best books of 2022

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 2268323006346587321.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 224p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 28th June 2022
      ISBN: 9781760989767

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Dyslexic edition.

Works about this Work

Another Melbourne Gillian Bouras , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 16 October vol. 33 no. 20 2023;

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel

'Set in a Melbourne bursting with bohemian allure, Chris Womersley's The Diplomat is a book of despair and the agony of regret. Intertwining the worlds of art, drug addiction and deception, the author confronts us with the question: how well can we truly know another? '

Best of 2022 in Australian Reading Scott Limbrick , Jonno Revanche , Ellen O'Brien , Megan Cheong , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2023;

— Review of This All Come Back Now 2022 anthology short story ; Unlimited Futures 2022 anthology short story ; An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life Paul Dalla Rosa , 2022 selected work short story ; Women I Know Katerina Gibson , 2022 selected work short story ; Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls Anne Casey-Hardy , 2022 selected work short story ; Everything Feels like the End of the World Else Fitzgerald , 2022 selected work short story ; The Burnished Sun Mirandi Riwoe , 2022 selected work short story ; This Devastating Fever Sophie Cunningham , 2022 single work novel ; Losing Face George Haddad , 2022 single work novel ; Root and Branch : Essays on Inheritance Eda Gunaydin , 2022 selected work essay ; People Who Lunch : Essays on Work, Leisure and Loose Living Sally Olds , 2022 selected work essay ; The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel
Book Review : The Diplomat, Chris Womersley Erich Mayer , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , July 2022;

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel

'A powerful and gripping novel of agony and the despair of regret'

How a 12-Novel Epic Influenced Chris Womersley’s The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , August 2022;
The Best New Books Released in July as Selected by Avid Readers and Critics Kate Evans , Claire Nichols , Sarah L'Estrange , Declan Fry , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , August 2022;
Chris Womersley The Diplomat Stephen Romei , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 2-8 July 2022;

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel

'“Hopefully the worst was behind me: detox, collecting Gertrude’s ashes, London, the twenty-four-hour flight, aeroplane food, customs, sniffer dogs. All I had to do now was survive the rest of my life. Which was no small order, of course.”' 

‘My God. The World.’ A Coda to the Theft of Weeping Woman Jennifer Mills , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 444 2022; (p. 39)

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel

'In Chris Womersley’s novel Cairo (2013), a middle-aged man looks back as his seventeen-year-old self is caught up in the notorious theft of Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria by a group of bohemian artists. The heist-Bildungsroman combination is energetic, and decades of distance give Tom Button’s narration a lush, nostalgic quality. His sifted memories of 1986 fall gently, landing somewhere between regret and sustained desire.' (Introduction)   

Dirty Realism Jack Marx , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9 July 2022; (p. 17)

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel
Noir and Nostalgia Inform Chris Womersley’s Tale of Forgery, Grief, and the Seamy Side of Urban Life Suzie Gibson , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 July 2022;

— Review of The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel

'Before prospective readers can get to the opening chapter of Chris Womersley’s new novel The Diplomat, they will find themselves assailed with several pages listing past awards received by the author and supplying a range of accolades cut and pasted from reviews of his earlier works.'

Best of 2022 in Australian Reading Scott Limbrick , Jonno Revanche , Ellen O'Brien , Megan Cheong , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2023;

— Review of This All Come Back Now 2022 anthology short story ; Unlimited Futures 2022 anthology short story ; An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life Paul Dalla Rosa , 2022 selected work short story ; Women I Know Katerina Gibson , 2022 selected work short story ; Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls Anne Casey-Hardy , 2022 selected work short story ; Everything Feels like the End of the World Else Fitzgerald , 2022 selected work short story ; The Burnished Sun Mirandi Riwoe , 2022 selected work short story ; This Devastating Fever Sophie Cunningham , 2022 single work novel ; Losing Face George Haddad , 2022 single work novel ; Root and Branch : Essays on Inheritance Eda Gunaydin , 2022 selected work essay ; People Who Lunch : Essays on Work, Leisure and Loose Living Sally Olds , 2022 selected work essay ; The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work novel
The Best New Books Released in July as Selected by Avid Readers and Critics Kate Evans , Claire Nichols , Sarah L'Estrange , Declan Fry , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , August 2022;
How a 12-Novel Epic Influenced Chris Womersley’s The Diplomat Chris Womersley , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , August 2022;
Last amended 6 Jul 2023 12:40:06
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