image of person or book cover 6008690293326626897.jpg
This image has been sourced from Booktopia
y separately published work icon Stray Dog Winter single work   novel   thriller  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Stray Dog Winter
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Darcy and Fin are brother and sister, nearly. They share the same abusive father, but their mothers were sisters. The betrayal that marks their introduction to the world - Fin was conceived when her mother came to the house to nurse her sister through Darcy's difficult birth - has run through their lives like a river. The secrets and lies that define their childhood have made them only able to trust each other in the world, and when Fin sends Darcy a ticket to join her in Russia where she is living on an art scholarship, he cannot refuse. The only thing he has to promise Fin is that he won't cruise toilets or beats while he is in Russia - the hardline Communist government is anti-homosexual and not kindly disposed to promiscuous foreigners, which Darcy definitely is. Darcy doesn't keep his promise and is caught by the secret police. It is only when his passport is confiscated and he is beaten and interrogated in the notorious Lubyanka prison that he realises he is in a world of trouble and that Fin isn't telling him everything about her life there. He is only released after he agrees to entrap a man whose subversive behaviour threatens to embarrass his father-in-law, a high-raking general. In doing so, Darcy sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events that goes to the centre of power in Russia and blows the lid off a long-buried secret that the Soviets - and the US - are desperate to keep hidden. He also discovers that he doesn't know his carefree big sister at all - and maybe never did.'--(Provided by publisher)

Notes

  • In memory of Mary Bright.
  • Epigraph: Why is this age worse than all the others? Perhaps/ in this: it has touched the point of putrification/.../But here a dark figure is marking the houses/ and calling the ravens, and the ravens come. - Anna Akhmatova [extensive quote shortened here] from The Stray Dog Caberet

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 6008690293326626897.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 312p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: September 2008.
      ISBN: 9781741755404 (pbk.)
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 3034388612593119926.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 312p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1st August 2009
      ISBN: 9781741758153

Other Formats

Works about this Work

The Silver Age of Fiction Peter Pierce , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)

[Review] Stray Dog Winter Chad Habel , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 309 2009; (p. 46)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
Russia, in Love and Betrayal Anna Creer , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 October 2008; (p. 12-13)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
An Innocent Abroad Peter Pierce , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 30 August 2008; (p. 29)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
[Review] Stray Dog Winter Tim Coronel , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 88 no. 2 2008; (p. 39)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
[Review] Stray Dog Winter Tim Coronel , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 88 no. 2 2008; (p. 39)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
An Innocent Abroad Peter Pierce , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 30 August 2008; (p. 29)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
Russia, in Love and Betrayal Anna Creer , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 October 2008; (p. 12-13)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
[Review] Stray Dog Winter Chad Habel , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 309 2009; (p. 46)

— Review of Stray Dog Winter David Francis , 2008 single work novel
The Silver Age of Fiction Peter Pierce , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)

Last amended 16 Aug 2021 11:41:39
Settings:
  • Moscow,
    c
    Russia,
    c
    c
    Former Soviet Union,
    c
    Eastern Europe, Europe,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X