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Courtesy of Allen & Unwin
Andrew McGahan Andrew McGahan i(A35760 works by)
Born: Established: 10 Oct 1966 Dalby, Dalby - Jandowae - Bowenville area, Darling Downs, Queensland, ; Died: Ceased: 1 Feb 2019 Victoria,
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Andrew McGahan was born the ninth of ten children on a wheat farm in Dalby, Queensland. His mother was a teacher and their home had a room dedicated to books. He went to the Catholic school in Dalby then a boarding school, Marist Brothers, for years 11 and 12. He.dropped out of an Arts degree at the University of Queensland after one month and went back to Dalby to help with the family farm and write his first novel which was never published.

McGahan returned to Brisbane where he worked in part-time jobs, lived on the dole and 'wrote piles of bad poetry and short stories' (Interview, Allen & Unwin, 2005). McGahan says he was attracted by 'the romance of being a writer and of living some sort of cool, bohemian lifestyle.' Later he became more interested in the writing itself finding it 'a very pleasant and satisfying way to exist.' While unemployed in 1991, he wrote Praise, a largely autobiographical tale of hard drugs, bodily functions and sex set in Brisbane.

McGahan has been a full-time writer since 1992 resisting offers of part-time employment. In an interview in the Australian he comments that 'A typical day, when he's in the middle of writing a book, is to write for about three hours, sit around a lot, play on the net - especially computer Scrabble, an enduring passion - watch Buffy the Vampire Killer or Star Trek (not much Australian drama), read - hang out. And then cook.' ( The Australian, 4.11.2000).

In an interview given on winning the Commonwealth Writer's Prize in 2005, McGahan stated that he reads nonfiction in preference to novels - 'I'd be stretched to name anything from the last 20 years' although he grew up on a diet of fantasy and horror. He has a passion for politics and sees Australia as a 'cold and hard' place in which what is happening now is 'dark and ugly, socially and politically'. (Interview, Advertiser, 2 July 2005).

McGahan has produced novels, stage plays and screenplays. He moved to Melbourne in 2000. He has won multiple literary awards, including: his first novel, Praise (1992) won The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award; The White Earth (2004) won the Miles Franklin Literary Award; and Wonders of a Godless Worlds won the Aurealis Award in 2009. His final work is The Rich Man's House, published in September 2019.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Rich Man's House Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2019 16620123 2019 single work novel crime

'In the freezing Antarctic waters south of Tasmania, a mountain was discovered in 1642 by the seafaring explorer Gerrit Jansz. Not just any mountain but one that Jansz estimated was an unbelievable height of twenty-five thousand meters.

'In 2016, at the foot of the unearthly mountain, a controversial and ambitious 'dream home', the Observatory, is painstakingly constructed by an eccentric billionaire - the only man to have ever reached the summit.

'Rita Gausse, estranged daughter of the architect who designed the Observatory is surprised, upon her father's death, to be invited to the isolated mansion to meet the famously reclusive owner, Walter Richman. But from the beginning, something doesn't feel right. Why is Richman so insistent that she come? What does he expect of her?

'When cataclysmic circumstances intervene to trap Rita and a handful of other guests in the Observatory, cut off from the outside world, she slowly being to learn the unsettling - and ultimately horrifying - answers.'

Source: Back cover.

2020 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2019 winner Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Horror Division Novel
y separately published work icon The Ocean of the Dead Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2016 9508723 2016 single work novel young adult fantasy

'The cataclysmic final book in the Ship Kings series. In search of a new world, Dow and Nell must face the final frontier - the treacherous Doldrums. Their journey will be filled with wonders; the rewards could be great - but the cost might be everything, for there are good reasons why none who have sailed the Ocean of the Dead have returned to tell the tale.

'It is no easy thing, to take leave of the world.

'At very long last a captain of his own ship, Dow Amber is determined to venture beyond the final frontier - the still, stagnant waters of the Doldrums - in search of a New World. With Nell finally by his side, he is hopeful that they can start again, far from politics, betrayal and war.

'But none who have sailed the Ocean of the Dead have returned to tell the tale. Before long, an old enemy appears. And with the enemy new dangers. Does the fleet sail to certain death, or to glorious new life beyond the treacherous Doldrums?

'The Ocean of the Dead is the cataclysmic conclusion to Andrew McGahan's stunning Ship Kings series.'

2017 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Older Readers
y separately published work icon The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2012 Z1899212 2012 single work novel young adult fantasy adventure ' Dow Amber has set sail at last upon the battleship Chloe, but can an outsider and an enemy ever truly belong in the Ship Kings' world? All too soon, Dow finds himself entangled in rebellion and treachery, and embarked upon a desperate voyage to the frozen north that will decide the future of the very empire. In the icy wastes Dow must take his fate in hand. Is he truly destined to be a mariner? Is the mysterious scapegoat girl Ignella a friend or a foe? And where will they each stand, when the long peace of the Four Isles threatens to shatter forever?' (Trove record)
2013 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Griffith University Young Adult Book Award
2013 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Older Readers
Last amended 9 Jan 2024 07:49:08
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