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First published in 1979.
In this late work, White squarely confronts the questions of identity (sexual and otherwise) that long preoccupied him. He does so in unusual fashion: in each of the three parts of the novel the main character appears in a different guise. In the first, in pre-WWI France, he is Eudoxia, 'wife' of a Greek. In the last, leading up to the beginning of WWII, he is Eadith Trist, bordello madam in London. Only in the middle section does he appear vaguely as himself, as Eddie Twyborn.
The book was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker prize but White withdrew it ostensibly to give younger writers a chance.
Patrick White (1912-1990), Australian author, won of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. His first novel Happy Valley was published in 1939. |
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