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y separately published work icon The Low Road single work   novel   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Low Road
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A young petty criminal, Lee, wakes in a seedy motel to find a bullet in his side and a suitcase of stolen money next to him, with only the haziest memory of exactly how he got there. Soon he meets Wild, a morphine-addicted doctor who is escaping his own disastrous life. The two men form an unwilling, unlikely alliance and set out for the safety of a country estate owned by a former colleague of Wild's named Sherman.

'As they flee the city, they develop an uneasy intimacy, inevitably revisiting their pasts even as they desperately seek to evade them. Lee is haunted by a brief stint in jail, while Wild is on the run from the legacy of medical malpractice. But Lee and Wild are not alone: they are pursued through an increasingly alien and gothic landscape by the ageing gangster Josef, who must retrieve the stolen money and deal with Lee to ensure his own survival. By the time Josef finally catches up to them, all three men have been forced to confront the parts of themselves they sought to outrun.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For my mother, my brother and my sister, who know something of the roads I have travelled.
  • Epigraph: A man's character is his fate. - Heraclitus, On the Universe.
  • Epigraph: And what the dead had no speech for, when living
    They can tell you, being dead: the communication
    Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living. - T.S.Eliot, Little Gidding.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Carlton North, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Scribe , 2007 .
      image of person or book cover 2126061908531998798.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 280p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 June 2011
      ISBN: 9781921215476
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Silver Oak ,
      2012 .
      image of person or book cover 939734109188307150.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Amazon
      Extent: 261p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 September 2012
      ISBN: 9781402798634
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Quercus ,
      2013 .
      image of person or book cover 1906592544392242821.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Amazon
      Extent: 288p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 17 January 2013
      ISBN: 9781780870571
Alternative title: Đường mòn - tiểu thuyết
Language: Vietnamese
    • Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon),
      c
      Vietnam,
      c
      Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Văn hóa Sài Gòn ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 8735604170025614575.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 322p.

Other Formats

Works about this Work

There Was Nothing, There Was Nowhere to Go : Writing Australian Rural Noir Leigh Redhead , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 37 2016;
'When I embarked on my doctorate in creative writing, I wanted to write about the decline of an alternative community in the 1980s, similar to the one in which I had grown up. A noir novel seemed the perfect vehicle for the dark themes I planned to explore, and promised to be very different from the private eye series I usually wrote. Typically, noir is located in urban environments and many studies of noir fiction and film maintain that an urban setting is integral to the genre, speaking as it does to the anxiety and alienation of modern life, feelings of anonymity and of being the outsider, and the corruption and criminality of the city. Much contemporary noir fiction still takes place in metropolitan areas; however, there is, increasingly, a sub-genre situated in rural locations, as illustrated by the rise of ‘Country’ or ‘Hillbilly Noir’ in the USA. Australian crime fiction has long made use of the bush and outback as a location – usually as a site of conquest where the hero ultimately triumphs over the antagonist; however, noir narratives are different, invariably ending in destruction and defeat. This article will investigate Australian Rural Noir through a comparative textual analysis of Kenneth Cooke’s Wake in Fright, Chris Womersley’s The Low Road and Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. It will consider the ways in which Australian rural noir uses landscape to subvert the pastoral paradigm and will examine the tensions between the exterior landscape and the interior life of the protagonists, reflecting on the particularly Australian cultural anxieties implicit in these texts. I also discuss my own research-led practice, the challenges involved in being an insider researcher and, finally, consider whether this nexus between the critical and creative helps or hinders the creative writing process.' (Publication abstract)
Repeat Offenders George Dunford , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 142-148)
The Outsiders Paul Mitchell (interviewer), 2010 single work interview
— Appears in: The Big Issue , 31 August - 13 September no. 362 2010; (p. 32-33)
No Place Like Home Chris Womersley , 2010 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 102-107)
The Year's Work in Fiction : 2007-2008 Roger Bourke , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 53 no. 2008; (p. 50-58)

— Review of From : The Time We Have Taken Steven Carroll , 2007 extract novel ; Prime Cuts Angus Gaunt , 2008 selected work short story ; The Best Australian Stories 2007 2007 anthology short story extract autobiography ; The Trout Opera Matthew Condon , 2007 single work novel ; Fear of Tennis David Cohen , 2007 single work novel ; The Complete Stories David Malouf , 2007 selected work short story ; Redfin Anthony Lynch , 2007 selected work short story ; Rohypnol Andrew Hutchinson , 2006 single work novel ; Breath Tim Winton , 2008 single work novel ; The Last Sky Alice Nelson , 2008 single work novel ; Landscape of Farewell Alex Miller , 2007 single work novel ; A History of the Beanbag : And Other Stories Susan Midalia , 2007 selected work short story ; Dead Birds Trevor Shearston , 2007 single work novel ; Secrets of the Sea Nicholas Shakespeare , 2007 single work novel ; Other Country Stephen Scourfield , 2007 single work novel ; The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel ; Lilia's Secret Erina Reddan , 2007 single work novel
[Review] The Low Road Graeme Moore , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 87 no. 2 2007; (p. 34)

— Review of The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel
Journey to a Bleak Heart Graeme Blundell , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 September 2007; (p. 10-11)

— Review of The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel
Thrill of the Chase Patrick Allington , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 September 2007; (p. 12)

— Review of The Night Has a Thousand Eyes : A Novel Mandy Sayer , 2007 single work novel ; The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel
Take Three Ian McFarlane , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 30 September 2007; (p. 25)

— Review of Whitecap James Woodford , 2007 single work novel ; The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel
Writers with Readers in Mind Debra Adelaide , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , October vol. 2 no. 9 2007; (p. 21-23)

— Review of Napoleon's Double Antoni Jach , 2007 single work novel ; The River Baptists Belinda Castles , 2006 single work novel ; Ron McCoy's Sea of Diamonds : A Novel Gregory Day , 2007 single work novel ; The Low Road Chris Womersley , 2007 single work novel
You Can Run, but You Can't Hide - the Past is Always Waiting Michael Williams , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: The Age , 22 September 2007; (p. 27)
No Place Like Home Chris Womersley , 2010 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 102-107)
The Outsiders Paul Mitchell (interviewer), 2010 single work interview
— Appears in: The Big Issue , 31 August - 13 September no. 362 2010; (p. 32-33)
Repeat Offenders George Dunford , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 142-148)
There Was Nothing, There Was Nowhere to Go : Writing Australian Rural Noir Leigh Redhead , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 37 2016;
'When I embarked on my doctorate in creative writing, I wanted to write about the decline of an alternative community in the 1980s, similar to the one in which I had grown up. A noir novel seemed the perfect vehicle for the dark themes I planned to explore, and promised to be very different from the private eye series I usually wrote. Typically, noir is located in urban environments and many studies of noir fiction and film maintain that an urban setting is integral to the genre, speaking as it does to the anxiety and alienation of modern life, feelings of anonymity and of being the outsider, and the corruption and criminality of the city. Much contemporary noir fiction still takes place in metropolitan areas; however, there is, increasingly, a sub-genre situated in rural locations, as illustrated by the rise of ‘Country’ or ‘Hillbilly Noir’ in the USA. Australian crime fiction has long made use of the bush and outback as a location – usually as a site of conquest where the hero ultimately triumphs over the antagonist; however, noir narratives are different, invariably ending in destruction and defeat. This article will investigate Australian Rural Noir through a comparative textual analysis of Kenneth Cooke’s Wake in Fright, Chris Womersley’s The Low Road and Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. It will consider the ways in which Australian rural noir uses landscape to subvert the pastoral paradigm and will examine the tensions between the exterior landscape and the interior life of the protagonists, reflecting on the particularly Australian cultural anxieties implicit in these texts. I also discuss my own research-led practice, the challenges involved in being an insider researcher and, finally, consider whether this nexus between the critical and creative helps or hinders the creative writing process.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 23 Jul 2020 15:49:29
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