Roger Averill Roger Averill i(A12232 works by)
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

'Roger Averill lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he works as a freelance researcher, editor and writer... In the late 1990s [Averill] wrote a doctoral thesis about sociological readings of biographies and has since published articles in a number of international journals. Stemming from this work, he has an agreement with the eminent Australian author Randolph Stow to one day write his authorised biography.'

Source: Transit Lounge website, http://www.transitlounge.com.au/
Sighted: 04/12/2008

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Relatively Famous Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2018 13864709 2018 single work novel

'Michael and Majorie Madigan refuse to be interviewed by biographer Sinclair Hughes  for his new book Inside the Lion's Den: The Literary Life of Gilbert Madigan. This is not surprising as Gilbert is Marjorie's ex- husband and Michael's mostly absent father.

'In Roger Averill's brilliantly conceived  new novel, Relatively Famous, Gilbert  Madigan is Australia's first Booker Prize winner, a feted and much lauded author that the U.K. and U.S. now likes to call their own. Michael cannot escape his father's life and work, and at times his own life seems swallowed by it. His father's success is a source of undeniable pleasure but also of great turmoil. How  does one live in the shadow of a famous relative who we never seem to be able to live up to?

'In a world increasingly obsessed  with  fame and celebrity, this engrossing  novel subtly explores  notions of success , masculinity, betrayal and loss, and ultimately what it might mean to live a good life.' (Publication summary)

2018 winner 'The Nib': CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature The Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize
2018 longlisted Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature
y separately published work icon Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2012 Z1881236 2012 single work biography

'Like the best true life adventures, the story of Werner Pelz is stranger than fiction. Forced to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish, he was then interned in England for being German. Shipped to Australia on the notorious HMT Dunera, he spent two years in internment camps in Hay and Tatura. After returning to Britain, his life evolved into a spiritual quest that led him to become an Anglican vicar, to author popular books (including God Is No More), to frequently appear on the BBC, and to become a Guardian columnist. Decades after his wartime Australian exile, he returned to teach Sociology at La Trobe University, continuing his search for a new way of thinking, a new mythology.

'In the mid-1980s, a young university student, Roger Averill, was taught by this quietly charismatic man. The two developed an unlikely friendship, one that was to last until Werner's death, after which Roger's research unexpectedly revealed a deeper dimension —a personal life filled with familial drama, pain and poignancy.

'Both memoir and biography, Exile: The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz is a compelling account of a remarkable man's life-long search for a truth unbound by orthodoxy. It is also a lyrical evocation of an abiding friendship in which a teacher and a student share the lessons of love and loss, discovering that while the questions they ask have no answers, the act of asking them creates a meaning of its own.' (From the publisher's website.)

2012 winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Non-Fiction
2013 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
Last amended 4 Dec 2008 11:16:14
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