The BURIED Book Club discussion

Australian author born in 1927 - Miles Franklin Award winner (Australia's highest literary award according to most) three times, however has become that obscure he was shopping around his latest novel ('The World Repair Video Game') for a long time before it was eventually serialised by 'Island' magazine and published in a limited run of 350 numbered copies, Australian libraries hold 20 copies so there's only 330 floating around on planet Earth (I'm lucky enough to have one).

Novels
'The Chantic Bird' 1968
'The Unknown Industrial Prisoner' 1971
'The Flesheaters' 1972
'Burn' 1974
'The Glass Canoe' 1976
'A Woman of the Future' 1979
'City of Women' 1981
'Archimedes and the Seagle' 1984
'Bloodfather' 1987
'The Chosen' 1997
'World Repair Video Game' 2015

Awards
1966 — The Advertiser Literary Competition for 'The Chantic Bird'
1971 — Miles Franklin Award for 'The Unknown Industrial Prisoner'
1976 — Miles Franklin Award for 'The Glass Canoe'
1979 — Miles Franklin Award for 'A Woman of the Future'
1980 — joint winner The Age Book of the Year Award Book of the Year for 'A Woman of the Future'
1985 — Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for 'Archimedes and the Seagle'

Text publishing has re-released his first novel and his three Miles Franklin winners. The other titles are a little harder to find.

Tonymess wrote: "Australian author born in 1927 - Miles Franklin Award winner (Australia's highest literary award according to most) three times, however has become that obscure he was shopping around his latest no..."

Thank you sir!

David Ireland also has a play called Image In The Clay. Image in the Clay


If anyone reads his work I would also recommend eventually delving into Double Agent: David Ireland And His Work Double Agent: David Ireland And His Work

A seriously under appreciated author. 'The Unknown Industrial Prisoner' is about everyone I ever worked with, 'The Glass Canoe' is (nearly) everyone I have had a beer with.

I have not read 'Bloodfather' 'The Chosen' nor 'World Repair Video Game' but do have a copy. I was able to secure a copy when the publisher put me onto a bookshop that held the last two available. I kid you not I lived a 10 minute drive away. It felt like a lottery win.

One other book I have but have not read is Atomic Fiction: The Novels of David Ireland by Ken Gelder. There are no reviews on GR.

I have a dedicated David Ireland shelf such is the power I find in his writing. If only he was almost famous.

Thank you very much for the update - very useful indeed. Apparently ‘Burn’ causes quite a stink being a fictionalised account of a Black soldier, I’d live a copy to see if the controversy was warranted. I’ve only got the Text editions & his latest (lucky me too).

Tonymess wrote: "Thank you very much for the update - very useful indeed. Apparently ‘Burn’ causes quite a stink being a fictionalised account of a Black soldier, I’d live a copy to see if the controversy was warra..."

I find it difficult to find too much comment on Burn. Considering its subject and of course the writing I think it a brilliant book.

I have a couple of others that come to mind by our buried author.

He has an unpublished novel called Desire. "Desire was deemed by one publisher too dangerous to publish, the kind of decision that makes it hard to determine where decency ends and pusillanimity begins."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts...

And that item says that he has had poetry released under the title Time Capsule. How this flew under my radar is very disappointing. Sums up Ireland I suppose.

Fettered one day pusillanimous the next.

Bloodfather. I ask is it me that thinks this a hidden gem of the highest order?