Roger Averill Roger Averill i(A12232 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 2 y separately published work icon Relatively Famous Roger Averill , 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)
1 6 y separately published work icon Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz Roger Averill , 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.)
1 The Story of a (Post) Colonial Boy Roger Averill , 2010 single work biography
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 55 no. 2 2010; (p. 126-142) Randolph Stow : Critical Essays 2021;
1 Major Voice of Australian Literature Shaped by Life's Journey Roger Averill , 2010 single work obituary (for Randolph Stow )
— Appears in: The Age , 2 June 2010; (p. 21)
1 Fiction Books Roger Averill , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 20 - 21 February 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Keeping Faith Roger Averill , 2010 single work novel
1 6 y separately published work icon Keeping Faith Roger Averill , Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2010 Z1667938 2010 single work novel

'In Keeping Faith the innocence and certainties of childhood are delicately tested against the realities of adult life. Josh and Gracie grow up in a working class world centred on the values of faith and family. Both cherish their father, a lay preacher, and their mother, but for Josh the complex secrets, doubts and subtleties of the world do not allow for certainty. In adulthood he works as a labour ward attendant, his younger sister Gracie as a nurse on a remote mission station in Papua New Guinea.

'While Josh's conviction falters, the unfailing faith of his sister leads to tragic consequences. As events move between 1975 and 1994, between a family drama in outer suburban Melbourne and a tribal rebellion in Melanesia, faith and doubt become entwined.' (From the publisher's website.)
1 4 y separately published work icon Boy He Cry : An Island Odyssey Roger Averill , Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2009 Z1547344 2009 single work autobiography 'Two young Australians arrive unannounced on a remote Melanesian island and ask its residents if they can live with them for a year. Granted this request, cut off from the outside world, living without electricity, telephones, running water, two-way radios or even access to an ocean-going boat, Roger Averill and his anthropologist partner adapt to life in a subsistence culture and find themselves overwhelmed by the generosity of their hosts. Treacherous sea voyages, cyclones, a drug-induced psychotic episode and encounters with maverick American missionaries all add to the adventure. As the health of the couple steadily deteriorates from repeated bouts of malaria, their relationships with the islanders intensify to form deep and lasting bonds. In this way, amidst stories of love and detective magic, shape-changing witches, playful tree sprites, dwarf's hair and a dead merman, the most amazing transformation in Boy He Cry remains the way these people from vastly different cultures start out as total strangers but quickly become friends, even family.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 Ancestral Ghosts : An Interview with Randolph Stow Roger Averill (interviewer), 2003 single work interview
— Appears in: New Literatures Review , Summer no. 39 2003; (p. 89-103)
1 Surveillance i "I balance china on the burly arms", Roger Averill , 1989 single work poetry
— Appears in: Outrider : A Journal of Multicultural Literature in Australia , December vol. 6 no. 2 1989; (p. 183-184)
1 We i "this failing light", Roger Averill , 1988 single work poetry
— Appears in: Arena , Winter no. 83 1988; (p. 134)
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