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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Orpheus Lost single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 Orpheus Lost
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In this compelling reimagining of the Orpheus story, Leela May travels into an underworld of kidnapping, torture and despair in search of her lover, Mishka.

'Leela is a mathematical genius who escaped her hardscrabble Southern home town to study in Boston. It's there that she meets a young Australian musician, Mishka. From the moment she first hears him play, busking in a subway, his music grips her, and they quickly become lovers.

'Then one day Leela is picked up off the street and taken to an interrogation centre somewhere outside the city. There has been an 'incident', an explosion on the underground; terrorists are suspected, security is high. And her old childhood friend Cobb is conducting a very questionable interrogation. Over the years Cobb has never forgotten Leela and the secrets she knows.

'Now he reveals to her that Mishka may not be all he seems. That there may be more to him than growing up in the Daintree rainforest in northern Queensland in an eccentric musical family. Leela has already discovered on her own account that some nights when Mishka claims to be at the music lab are actually spent at a cafe. A cafe, Cobb tells her, known to be a terrorist contact point.

'Who can she believe?

'And then Mishka disappears.' (Publisher's blurb)

Exhibitions

17261270
17024120

Notes

  • Author's note: Sections of this novel, in slightly different form, have appeared in the following literary journals: Nimrod International Journal (where section IV.1, as 'The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon', received the Geraldine McLoud award); Southern Humanities Review; Hecate.'
  • Epigraphs:
    Orpheus crosses the boundaries not only between life and death and between man and nature, but also between truth and illusion, reality and imaginiation. - Joseph Campbell.

    The language of music is quite different from the language of intentionality. What it has to say is simultaneously revealed and concealed. It is demythologized prayer. - Theodor Adorno.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Pymble, Turramurra - Pymble - St Ives area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Fourth Estate ,
      2007 .
      image of person or book cover 3160316817526744477.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 358p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 01 May 2007
      ISBN: 9780732284411 (pbk.), 0732284414 (pbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      2007 .
      image of person or book cover 2295425043313719508.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 368p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 30 October 2007
      ISBN: 9780393065527
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 390110584088428834.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 358p.p.
      Edition info: 1st Norton pbk.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 16 December 2008
      ISBN: 9780393334142, 0393334147
    • Toronto, Ontario,
      c
      Canada,
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Random House Canada ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 1271699137904819489.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 358p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 30 September 2008
      ISBN: 9780676979435, 0676979432
Alternative title: De stad van Orpheus
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Ambo/Anthos ,
      2008 .
      image of person or book cover 2215148240486144238.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 348p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 24 April 2008
      ISBN: 9789041412706, 9041412700

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Humanitarian Scripts in the World Novel Debjani Ganguly , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Worldmaking : Literature, Language, Culture 2017; (p. 201-213)
Frontiers of Life and Death : The Human, New Wars and World Literary Sensibilities Debjani Ganguly , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: What is the Human? : Australian Voices from the Humanities 2012; (p. 103-122)
Due Preparations for Paradise : or, The Plague Now According to Hany Abu-Assad and Janette Turner Hospital Helga Ramsey-Kurz , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Engaging with Literature of Commitment : The Worldly Scholar (Volume 2) 2012; (p. 217-230)
Stories of Longing and Remembrance : The Role of Myth in Making Meaning Patricia Goldblatt , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Multicultural Review , Spring vol. 19 no. 1 2010; (p. 37-41)
'A literary criticism of the books "Orpheus Lost," by Janette Turner Hospital and "The Gathering," by Anne Enright. It outlines the characters in the books and explores the ways that myths which ground self and social behavior are examined and featured in the books. An overview of the definition of the word myth which is found in Merriam Webster's online dictionary is also given.' (Editor's abstract)
Gendered Terrorism : Intertext, Context, and Richard Flanagan's The Unknown Terrorist Theodore F. Sheckels , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 35-39)
Exploring Terror Incognita Peter Craven , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 28 April 2007; (p. 25)

— Review of Orpheus Lost Janette Turner Hospital , 2007 single work novel
Into the Underworld Katharine England , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 April 2007; (p. 10)

— Review of Orpheus Lost Janette Turner Hospital , 2007 single work novel
Courting Disaster Peter Craven , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , May vol. 2 no. 4 2007; (p. 7)

— Review of Orpheus Lost Janette Turner Hospital , 2007 single work novel
[Review] Orpheus Lost Clive Tilsley , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , April/May vol. 86 no. 8 2007; (p. 36)

— Review of Orpheus Lost Janette Turner Hospital , 2007 single work novel
Underworld of Chaos and Pain Rachel Cunneen , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 May 2007; (p. 13)

— Review of Orpheus Lost Janette Turner Hospital , 2007 single work novel
An Elusive Love Story Bron Sibree , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 May 2007; (p. 11-12)
Dangerous Places Murray Waldren , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 May 2007; (p. 8-9)
Accidental Author Revamps Ancient Tale Gia Metherell , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 June 2007; (p. 9)
Orpheus in a Post-Feminist Underworld of Rendition Flights, Prisons and Torture Jason Steger , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 16 June 2007; (p. 26-27)
Life on the Dark Side Deborah Bogle , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 7 July 2007; (p. 11)
Last amended 6 Jul 2021 14:30:06
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