What do you think?
Rate this book
Luca Antara
Combining memoir, travelogue, history, and detective story, Luca Antara is a rich tapestry of history and the present. It parallels the life of the author, an émigré to Sydney; and the life of an historical figure, António da Nova, the servant of a Portuguese explorer who in the 1600s sent da Nova to find out more about Luca Antara—now Australia. New to Sydney, Martin Edmond finds himself impoverished and displaced. He earns money as a taxi driver but spends his spare time frequenting secondhand bookshops trying to learn more about the history of Australia and the wider region. The people Edmond encounters in his taxi and in his search for rare books are varied and strange, offering the reader a voyeuristic glimpse into Sydney's subculture. Edmond's reading centers upon da Nova, but each book he reads leads to another and the subject becomes broader and increasingly fascinating. Sent to discover more about Luca Antara, António da Nova's crew mutiny and dump him on the West Australian coast. He is found by Aborigines, who take him on an epic walk across northern Australia. Eventually he manages to return to his master in Portugal who awaits news of his explorations. The lives of the two men and the strange customs and unique social mores of each man's culture and time intertwine throughout the book, ending with Edmond literally walking in the footsteps of da Nova across northern Australia.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2008
2 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 26, 2020
This was a marvelous book that I had never heard of and picked up sight unseen from a sale table.
Luca Antara is a book in sections with the first titled Castaway and while throughout it is really a story about books, in the first section it is also about exploring the bookshops of and reading in Sydney. The author is diffident about letting us know exactly when he moved to Sydney (I am guessing from our most admirable neighbour, New Zealand) but he describes getting there, having a couple of filler jobs, not knowing many people as he settles in. I would guess that we are talking about the 90's though I can't know for sure, because that was the time I was in Sydney for a couple of years, similarly new and learning about the city with a very similar perspective. I too loved books and bookshops.
This early section of the book intersperses the authors life and Sydney landmarks with the things he reads about and the old books he finds in the bookshops he haunts. And as he loves the history of the Asia Pacific, maritime exploration and fun facts about Pacific islands best, I throughly enjoyed this section. There is a stirring story of the Marquesa Islands and the Europeans who visited there and how it supported and influenced other literature such as Moby Dick. There are brief mentions of other classic works of exploration as well and a story from the tragedy of the Batavia in West Australia. The main slant of this section however is to tell us how the author came across the old text mentioning the 'land of Luca Antara' and how he started down the path of bibliophilic detection of those writings. In brief, a 17th century Portugese explorer sends his servant Antonio da Nova to search for a mythic land that is meant to be located South of Java. It seems to be one of those small interests that grows into an obsession which is only fueled when he gets the email of someone in Indonesia who claims to have a copy of the original text written by da Nova.
The third section, titled Voyage is where we get into the narrative of the trip that da Nova started, allegedly in 1610 sailing from Malacca to Sulawesi to find a boat to take him to Luca Antara, though he did not know exactly where this place was located. This is a fascinating and intriguing story, about the people, cultures and places of the Indies of the 1600's it is well crafted and the details are intricate and rich. I was fascinated from the start and did not initially spend much time thinking about the authenticity or the likelihood of the narrative. However, when we reach the point where da Nova and his guide Rindi are marooned on what is clearly, CLEARLY the Northern shores of Australia, my brain started throwing up logical arguments.
Now I had already decided that this section, unlike the previous ones was an example of the unreliable narrator: the descriptions and the details and the places were too contemporary and though I am no expert on the era or the location, it 'felt' way too modern to be words dating from the seventeenth century. The author has mentioned that the source he got the details from, is not %100 reliable and he has said that he '...corrected the spelling. Otherwise the material is as it was sent to me." [pg 130]. I don't mind fiction masquerading as fact, especially in history, but I do prefer to be told which it is ahead of time, I don't like having to wonder just what it is I am reading and that really was a bit of a feature of the journey even before Australia. After we reached our Northern shores? It just read like an a priori description of North Australia: come on, NO ONE from the seventeenth century, or any other century first seeing an Australian eagle while dehydrated and starving thinks "an eagle with a tail like a wedge"! Despite these inconsistencies, I very much enjoyed this section. The voyage across the Timor sea in a traditional boat, the weeks of walking across Northern Australia, the trepang trading village on the coast... all good stuff. I don't really believe it, but I did enjoy it.
The last section, Return, is where the author flies to Kuala Lumpur and Island hops from Bali along the chain of Islands until he gets to Flores and I am so exquisitely tortured with jealousy! This is the trip I have wanted to do since I first visited Bali ages ago and reading about it in lockdown, with no travel at all possible was harsh. It is a meandering travelogue of how he goes along, who he meats, where he stays along the way. While he does visit some things pertaining to the story of da Nova and Luca Antara along the way, there is no solid conclusion to this little historical (perhaps) mystery. Does there need to be? Not for me! The description of Flores and his trip across the water in a local boat to see the Komodo dragons was far more enchanting to me than any conclusion to the da Nova story could be.
Finally, a word about the writing; it was beautiful, well constructed well edited and every moment spent reading was a pleasure. As a purely literary work it far outshines many that I have read of 'literary prize nomination' lists. The amount of research is huge and it is presented so well that it is thoroughly enjoyable and beats for dead many 'literary prize WINNERS' that I have been reluctantly subjected to. Whatever the case for the reliability of the sources and story may actually be, it is a crying shame if this book escaped the notice of people who draw up lists for awards. I can only assume that the imprint it was published under was too small for the various committees to notice. Great book, so glad I found it.
Luca Antara is a book in sections with the first titled Castaway and while throughout it is really a story about books, in the first section it is also about exploring the bookshops of and reading in Sydney. The author is diffident about letting us know exactly when he moved to Sydney (I am guessing from our most admirable neighbour, New Zealand) but he describes getting there, having a couple of filler jobs, not knowing many people as he settles in. I would guess that we are talking about the 90's though I can't know for sure, because that was the time I was in Sydney for a couple of years, similarly new and learning about the city with a very similar perspective. I too loved books and bookshops.
This early section of the book intersperses the authors life and Sydney landmarks with the things he reads about and the old books he finds in the bookshops he haunts. And as he loves the history of the Asia Pacific, maritime exploration and fun facts about Pacific islands best, I throughly enjoyed this section. There is a stirring story of the Marquesa Islands and the Europeans who visited there and how it supported and influenced other literature such as Moby Dick. There are brief mentions of other classic works of exploration as well and a story from the tragedy of the Batavia in West Australia. The main slant of this section however is to tell us how the author came across the old text mentioning the 'land of Luca Antara' and how he started down the path of bibliophilic detection of those writings. In brief, a 17th century Portugese explorer sends his servant Antonio da Nova to search for a mythic land that is meant to be located South of Java. It seems to be one of those small interests that grows into an obsession which is only fueled when he gets the email of someone in Indonesia who claims to have a copy of the original text written by da Nova.
The third section, titled Voyage is where we get into the narrative of the trip that da Nova started, allegedly in 1610 sailing from Malacca to Sulawesi to find a boat to take him to Luca Antara, though he did not know exactly where this place was located. This is a fascinating and intriguing story, about the people, cultures and places of the Indies of the 1600's it is well crafted and the details are intricate and rich. I was fascinated from the start and did not initially spend much time thinking about the authenticity or the likelihood of the narrative. However, when we reach the point where da Nova and his guide Rindi are marooned on what is clearly, CLEARLY the Northern shores of Australia, my brain started throwing up logical arguments.
Now I had already decided that this section, unlike the previous ones was an example of the unreliable narrator: the descriptions and the details and the places were too contemporary and though I am no expert on the era or the location, it 'felt' way too modern to be words dating from the seventeenth century. The author has mentioned that the source he got the details from, is not %100 reliable and he has said that he '...corrected the spelling. Otherwise the material is as it was sent to me." [pg 130]. I don't mind fiction masquerading as fact, especially in history, but I do prefer to be told which it is ahead of time, I don't like having to wonder just what it is I am reading and that really was a bit of a feature of the journey even before Australia. After we reached our Northern shores? It just read like an a priori description of North Australia: come on, NO ONE from the seventeenth century, or any other century first seeing an Australian eagle while dehydrated and starving thinks "an eagle with a tail like a wedge"! Despite these inconsistencies, I very much enjoyed this section. The voyage across the Timor sea in a traditional boat, the weeks of walking across Northern Australia, the trepang trading village on the coast... all good stuff. I don't really believe it, but I did enjoy it.
The last section, Return, is where the author flies to Kuala Lumpur and Island hops from Bali along the chain of Islands until he gets to Flores and I am so exquisitely tortured with jealousy! This is the trip I have wanted to do since I first visited Bali ages ago and reading about it in lockdown, with no travel at all possible was harsh. It is a meandering travelogue of how he goes along, who he meats, where he stays along the way. While he does visit some things pertaining to the story of da Nova and Luca Antara along the way, there is no solid conclusion to this little historical (perhaps) mystery. Does there need to be? Not for me! The description of Flores and his trip across the water in a local boat to see the Komodo dragons was far more enchanting to me than any conclusion to the da Nova story could be.
Finally, a word about the writing; it was beautiful, well constructed well edited and every moment spent reading was a pleasure. As a purely literary work it far outshines many that I have read of 'literary prize nomination' lists. The amount of research is huge and it is presented so well that it is thoroughly enjoyable and beats for dead many 'literary prize WINNERS' that I have been reluctantly subjected to. Whatever the case for the reliability of the sources and story may actually be, it is a crying shame if this book escaped the notice of people who draw up lists for awards. I can only assume that the imprint it was published under was too small for the various committees to notice. Great book, so glad I found it.
August 4, 2023
This is a odd, but at times fascinating combination of memoir and history and examination of a search both for historical truth and personal understanding; a description which doesn't really allow for how amusingly biographical it is. I was particularly fascinated by his tales of life in downtown Sydney in the 1970/1980's and the louche world that he moved in which, oddly perhaps, reminded me very much of my life in London in the late 1970/80's. It is a world as vanished, thanks to gentrification and sky-rocketing real estate prices, as any of the more distant times he tries to reach back into as he explores the as he admits, compelling but ultimately irrelevant and even silly question of who 'first discovered' Australia.
For me the parts where he discusses his reading and times spent in second hand bookshops (another world as lost any vanished civilisation) and the books, he found, or didn't find, and those he read or failed to read. Published in 2006 so much of what he describes is the world in the early days of the internet, he still wrote letters to organisations to acquire specialist books. For those born in the 21st century it is an account of practices that have now vanished.
The one part of the book, his accounts of his travels in 2002, the places he stayed and saw are for me the ones that held the least interest. It takes only a few seconds on the internet to confirm that the places he describes where he stayed and visited have been transformed if not completely obliterated in the intervening years. That is the problem with all relatively recent travel writing, it doesn't have any of the charm or fascination that older accounts have, only the frustration of realising this is a place that no longer exists which I could have visited and experienced - but that is only my foible and doesn't in anyway distract from the authors brilliant and compellingly addictive prose and story telling.
I have shelved this book under many headings because ultimately it is many different things - as I suspect the author is a man of many different talents - I read nothing by him before but I hope do so in the future.
For me the parts where he discusses his reading and times spent in second hand bookshops (another world as lost any vanished civilisation) and the books, he found, or didn't find, and those he read or failed to read. Published in 2006 so much of what he describes is the world in the early days of the internet, he still wrote letters to organisations to acquire specialist books. For those born in the 21st century it is an account of practices that have now vanished.
The one part of the book, his accounts of his travels in 2002, the places he stayed and saw are for me the ones that held the least interest. It takes only a few seconds on the internet to confirm that the places he describes where he stayed and visited have been transformed if not completely obliterated in the intervening years. That is the problem with all relatively recent travel writing, it doesn't have any of the charm or fascination that older accounts have, only the frustration of realising this is a place that no longer exists which I could have visited and experienced - but that is only my foible and doesn't in anyway distract from the authors brilliant and compellingly addictive prose and story telling.
I have shelved this book under many headings because ultimately it is many different things - as I suspect the author is a man of many different talents - I read nothing by him before but I hope do so in the future.
September 7, 2017
I have absolutely no idea what this book was. Autobiography? Travel book? History? No idea.
Didn't know where it was going and I don't think the author knew either. A lot of it read like one long bibliography for a dissertation on Malaysian islands.
So odd.
Didn't know where it was going and I don't think the author knew either. A lot of it read like one long bibliography for a dissertation on Malaysian islands.
So odd.
April 24, 2012
interesting and very good how two stories of now and then intertwine
August 13, 2022
I’ve read somewhere that this book is really two, rolled into one. I’m not so sure. There is a cohesion but some of it is overly mannered and obscure; other parts, in particular the last, are alive and interesting.
It’s almost as if the writer has gone through an unwarranted amount of research and introspection to find himself in a place of wonder and, thankfully, a conclusion.
All through the book are themes of journeys, belief, mis belief and fleeting associations with booksellers, women, researchers and “fellow travellers”.
At times I skimmed the pages, bored and confused, at others I read with great interest.
It is a fascinating glimpse into histories and the ideas about ‘finding’ Australia.
Balinese had a joke when I was there that Balinese sailors had long ago said “Look there’s land” and the reply had been “I can’t see anything” which in Balinese said quickly can sound like Australia. Who knows?
In the end a read saved by the last chapter, which finally, sounds real.
It’s almost as if the writer has gone through an unwarranted amount of research and introspection to find himself in a place of wonder and, thankfully, a conclusion.
All through the book are themes of journeys, belief, mis belief and fleeting associations with booksellers, women, researchers and “fellow travellers”.
At times I skimmed the pages, bored and confused, at others I read with great interest.
It is a fascinating glimpse into histories and the ideas about ‘finding’ Australia.
Balinese had a joke when I was there that Balinese sailors had long ago said “Look there’s land” and the reply had been “I can’t see anything” which in Balinese said quickly can sound like Australia. Who knows?
In the end a read saved by the last chapter, which finally, sounds real.
February 28, 2021
A man's deep love of books, poetry, and specific geographical history. The historic information spills out like Niagra Falls rather than the gentle mountain stream I prefer. If you are crazy interested in trade routes and marooned ships and thick, specific historical details, Luca Antara is a dream come true.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews