image of person or book cover 8187294493100872679.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon The Umbrella Club single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 The Umbrella Club
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

'During World War 1 a friendship is forged on the battlefields of France between Axel and Edward, two young Englishmen. There, inspired by barrage balloons, they develop a mutual fascination that will change the course of their lives.

After the war, as Axel's passion for flight and freedom consume him, he sets off to balloon across the highlands of New Albion, a largely unexplored island north of Australia. When he fails to return, Edward travels to the island to solve the mystery of his friend's disappearance and retrace his final journey. What he finds there will haunt him for the rest of his life.

The Umbrella Club is a darkly compelling adventure into the depths of the human soul and to the frontiers of colonial exploration. In the aftermath of war, when there is nothing left to fear, sometimes the only possibility for recovery is flight.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,: University of Queensland Press , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 8187294493100872679.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 252p.
      Note/s:
      • Published September 28th 2009
      ISBN: 9780702237232 (pbk.)

Other Formats

Works about this Work

'The Living, Breathing Text: Adorno, Animals and Language in' the Umbrella Club Uli Krahn , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 78 no. 1 2018; (p. 121-134)

'I am reading David Brooks's novel 'The Umbrella Club' with the help of Adorno's dialectic method, to trace the novel's philosophical movements. Thoughts which Brooks develops in 'Derrida's Breakfast' - where he interrogates philosophy and poetry from a vegan perspective - are explored in 'The Umbrella Club'; in fiction, ideas can play. Bringing the Frankfurt School thinker into this context may help readers to appreciate the theoretical sophistication of Brooks's writings, and to see his rejection of postmodern certainties not as return to a pre-post modern stance, but as a decisive moving ahead, into a new, compassionate aesthetics which do not shy away from the complexities of the philosophical tradition. Or, a floating ahead, driven by changing winds and vagaries of landscape as balloons will, yet ultimately reaching its destination, as balloons also do, sometimes, if one is persistent. After all, 'The Umbrella Club' is a gothic 1920s adventure tale.' (Publication abstract)

Untitled Robyn Rowland , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 122 2010; (p. 24-27)

— Review of The Lake Woman : A Romance Alan Gould , 2009 single work novel ; The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Well Read Katharine England , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 November 2009; (p. 26)

— Review of Sons of the Rumour David Foster , 2009 single work novel ; The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Untitled Clive Tilsley , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , September vol. 89 no. 2 2009; (p. 24)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
The Flight Club Diane Stubbings , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 31 October 2009; (p. 13)
Poetic Vehicle Carries Heavy Moral Freight Jose Borghino , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 October 2009; (p. 27)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Ballooning over New Albion Stephen Muecke , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 315 2009; (p. 50)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Book for a Rainy Day Michael Cleggett , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Blue Mountains Gazette , 21 October 2009; (p. 9)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Boy's Own Journey to the Heart of Darkness A. P. Riemer , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24-25 October 2009; (p. 26-27)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
Untitled Clive Tilsley , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , September vol. 89 no. 2 2009; (p. 24)

— Review of The Umbrella Club David Brooks , 2009 single work novel
The Flight Club Diane Stubbings , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 31 October 2009; (p. 13)
'The Living, Breathing Text: Adorno, Animals and Language in' the Umbrella Club Uli Krahn , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 78 no. 1 2018; (p. 121-134)

'I am reading David Brooks's novel 'The Umbrella Club' with the help of Adorno's dialectic method, to trace the novel's philosophical movements. Thoughts which Brooks develops in 'Derrida's Breakfast' - where he interrogates philosophy and poetry from a vegan perspective - are explored in 'The Umbrella Club'; in fiction, ideas can play. Bringing the Frankfurt School thinker into this context may help readers to appreciate the theoretical sophistication of Brooks's writings, and to see his rejection of postmodern certainties not as return to a pre-post modern stance, but as a decisive moving ahead, into a new, compassionate aesthetics which do not shy away from the complexities of the philosophical tradition. Or, a floating ahead, driven by changing winds and vagaries of landscape as balloons will, yet ultimately reaching its destination, as balloons also do, sometimes, if one is persistent. After all, 'The Umbrella Club' is a gothic 1920s adventure tale.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 9 Jun 2021 08:39:13
X