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Cover image courtesy of Pan Macmillan.
y separately published work icon Gang of Four single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2004... 2004 Gang of Four
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'They have been close friends for almost two decades, supporting each other through personal and professional crises parents dying, children leaving home, house moves, job changes, political activism, diets and really bad haircuts. Now the 'gang of four', Isabel, Sally, Robin and Grace, are all fifty-something, successful and restless. It is Isabel who makes the first move, taking a year away from her family to follow in her mother's footsteps across Europe. Soon Sally is on her way to San Francisco, to come face to face with a guilty secret. Robin, in the wake of a clandestine relationship, heads for isolation in the country. And Grace? Well, Grace would never go away for an entire year, but, lonely in the others' absence, she thinks she might take a short holiday in England. Once there, she bumps into someone she hardly knows herself.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Der beste Teil vom Leben : Roman
Language: German

Other Formats

  • Also braille.
  • Also large print.

Works about this Work

Getting Noticed : Images of Older Women in Australian Popular Culture Liz Byrski , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , vol. 2 no. 2010;
'Despite the fact that women over the age of 45 buy more books than any other demographic group they rarely feature as the central characters in Australian popular fiction. When they do appear it is usually in minor roles where they are characterised in negatively stereotypical ways. This paper argues that by ignoring older women as subjects and consumers, creators, producers and publishers of the products of popular culture fail to provide realistic and sympathetic representations of older women thus rendering them invisible to themselves and to others. It includes a case study of my own attempts to address this representational black hole through the writing and publishing of five novels in the genre of feminist realism, focused on the lives of women between the ages of 50 and 85. It records the success of these books in the commercial publishing market place where they are now all Australian bestsellers and two have reached the top ten fiction on the NeilsenBookscan.' (Author's abstract)
Finding the Gap : A Conversation with Liz Byrski Deborah Hunn (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: Indigo , Summer no. 3 2009; (p. 10-17)
Liz Byrski discusses her childhood dreams of becoming a writer and realisation of the realisation of her ambitions after migrating to Australia from England.
Fremantle : The Port as a Threshold of Consciousness in the Novel Graham Nowland , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 51 no. 2006; (p. 145-158)
Explores the David Lodge q.v. notion of the narrative nature of consciousness in fiction with regard to literature set in the Western Australian Port of Fremantle. Discussion ranges over a period from 1879 to 2006.
Return of the Repressed Felicity Bloch , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 263 2004; (p. 53-54)

— Review of Gang of Four Liz Byrski , 2004 single work novel
In Short : Fiction Michael McGirr , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15-16 May 2004; (p. 14)

— Review of Gang of Four Liz Byrski , 2004 single work novel
Dream Chasers Take Off Again Anne Partlon , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 29 March 2004; (p. 10)

— Review of Gang of Four Liz Byrski , 2004 single work novel
In Short : Fiction Michael McGirr , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15-16 May 2004; (p. 14)

— Review of Gang of Four Liz Byrski , 2004 single work novel
Return of the Repressed Felicity Bloch , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 263 2004; (p. 53-54)

— Review of Gang of Four Liz Byrski , 2004 single work novel
Fremantle : The Port as a Threshold of Consciousness in the Novel Graham Nowland , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 51 no. 2006; (p. 145-158)
Explores the David Lodge q.v. notion of the narrative nature of consciousness in fiction with regard to literature set in the Western Australian Port of Fremantle. Discussion ranges over a period from 1879 to 2006.
Finding the Gap : A Conversation with Liz Byrski Deborah Hunn (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: Indigo , Summer no. 3 2009; (p. 10-17)
Liz Byrski discusses her childhood dreams of becoming a writer and realisation of the realisation of her ambitions after migrating to Australia from England.
Getting Noticed : Images of Older Women in Australian Popular Culture Liz Byrski , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , vol. 2 no. 2010;
'Despite the fact that women over the age of 45 buy more books than any other demographic group they rarely feature as the central characters in Australian popular fiction. When they do appear it is usually in minor roles where they are characterised in negatively stereotypical ways. This paper argues that by ignoring older women as subjects and consumers, creators, producers and publishers of the products of popular culture fail to provide realistic and sympathetic representations of older women thus rendering them invisible to themselves and to others. It includes a case study of my own attempts to address this representational black hole through the writing and publishing of five novels in the genre of feminist realism, focused on the lives of women between the ages of 50 and 85. It records the success of these books in the commercial publishing market place where they are now all Australian bestsellers and two have reached the top ten fiction on the NeilsenBookscan.' (Author's abstract)
Last amended 22 May 2019 15:04:23
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