'He hated the word ‘retirement’, but not as much as he hated the word ‘village’, as if ageing made you a peasant or a fool. Herein lives the village idiot.
'Professor Frederick Lothian, retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. His wife, Martha, is dead and his two adult children are lost to him in their own ways. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life – objects he has collected over many years and tells himself he is keeping for his daughter – he is determined to be miserable, but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.
'When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbour, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime’s secrets and lies, and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.
'Humorous, poignant and galvanising by turns, Extinctions is a novel about all kinds of extinction – natural, racial, national and personal – and what we can do to prevent them.' (Publication summary)
Dedication : For Christopher Hill, who understands.
Epigraph:
'Who is prepared to deprive life of a significant dénouement?'
Jean Améry
'While I was reading Josephine Wilson's novel Extinctions, the thought that occurred to me most frequently was, "Why did I not hear of and read this book sooner?" Despite escaping my notice for the past two years, it did not go unrecognized in its country of publication: the book won the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript as well as the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2017, and it is easy to understand why. This book is as humorous as it is profound and as original as it is successful.' (Introduction)
Miles Franklin Shortlist 2017
Nic Brasch
(interviewer),
2017
14751086
2017
single work
interview
podcast
'The shortlist for the 2017 Miles Franklin was announced on 18 June 2017, and this episode - featuring all five shortlisted authors - was released on 20 June 2017.
This episode features interviews with all five shortlisted authors: Emily Maguire (An Isolated Incident), Mark O'Flynn (The Last Days of Ava Langdon), Ryan O'Neill (Their Brilliant Careers), Philip Salom (Waiting) and Josephine Wilson (Extinctions).'
Source: Blurb.
'The 2017 Miles Franklin Award winner will be announced tonight, but I’m not taking bets on who it’s likely to be. Each shortlisted novel is by a first-time nominee. Each is of satisfyingly high literary quality and very different in voice, logic, focus and story.' (Introduction)
'While I was reading Josephine Wilson's novel Extinctions, the thought that occurred to me most frequently was, "Why did I not hear of and read this book sooner?" Despite escaping my notice for the past two years, it did not go unrecognized in its country of publication: the book won the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript as well as the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2017, and it is easy to understand why. This book is as humorous as it is profound and as original as it is successful.' (Introduction)
'Extinctions takes its time giving up its secrets, and there are some we will never know. One of its most persistent enigmas is what kind of book it is. I wondered, during the first half, whether it was a powerful and perceptive example of the Bildungsroman for seniors: an elderly person (usually male) meets someone new who teaches him to be a better person, to pay attention to the important things in life, to treat those he loves properly, to reconcile himself to his past – in short, to grow up'
(Introduction)
'Wilson, the 60th winner of Australia’s most high-profile literary prize for fiction, says ‘it’s not the sort of thing I ever imagined would happen to me’'
'The 2017 Miles Franklin Award winner will be announced tonight, but I’m not taking bets on who it’s likely to be. Each shortlisted novel is by a first-time nominee. Each is of satisfyingly high literary quality and very different in voice, logic, focus and story.' (Introduction)
Miles Franklin Shortlist 2017
Nic Brasch
(interviewer),
2017
14751086
2017
single work
interview
podcast
'The shortlist for the 2017 Miles Franklin was announced on 18 June 2017, and this episode - featuring all five shortlisted authors - was released on 20 June 2017.
This episode features interviews with all five shortlisted authors: Emily Maguire (An Isolated Incident), Mark O'Flynn (The Last Days of Ava Langdon), Ryan O'Neill (Their Brilliant Careers), Philip Salom (Waiting) and Josephine Wilson (Extinctions).'
Source: Blurb.
