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Homesickness

Text Classics
By Murray Bail
Series: Text Classics
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.05 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 150 ratings, 29 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Homesickness by Murray Bail follows a group of diverse Australian tourists travelling the world on an organised tour. As they navigate foreign cultures and grapple with their own biases, the novel explores themes of identity, cultural dislocation, and the quest for a sense of belonging. Through vividly described settings and insightful observations, Bail captures the humour and poignancy of both the journey and the travellers' introspections.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$1799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy witty, satirical explorations of cultural identity and the human experience. With its inventive narrative, the story offers a rich tapestry of characters and settings that provide insightful commentary on the pursuit of belonging and the complexities of individuality.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

It could almost have been their own country: these sections with the gums briefly framed like a traditional oil painting by the slowly passing window. The colours were as brown and parched; that chaff-coloured grass, Ah, this dun-coloured realism. Any minute now the cry of the crow or a cockatoo; but no.

Thirteen men and women travel the world on a package tour but wherever they go nothing is as it seems. Challenged by the unexpected, by differences and subtleties, Bail's tourists are in turn repelled and attracted - and all are altered.

Homesickness, by Murray Bail, delves into the subtleties of travel and the way that new environments can change perspective. With its rich descriptions and deep character insights, the novel offers a compelling exploration of cultural dissonance and personal transformation.

Series: Text Classics

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  • Homesickness
    It could almost have been their own country: these sections with the gums briefly framed like a traditional oil painting by the slowly passing window. The colours were as brown and parched; that chaff-coloured grass, Ah, this dun-coloured realism. Any minute now the cry of the crow or a cockatoo; but no. Thirteen men and women travel the world on...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Homesickness by Murray Bail is often praised for its inventive narrative and unique approach to storytelling. Many reviews highlight Bail's sharp wit and insightful observations, as well as the book's clever exploration of themes such as alienation and cultural contrast. Critics generally applaud the novel's ability to blend humour with deeper, thought-provoking commentary on human experiences.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781921922619

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 26 April 2012

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Peter Conrad
  • Introduction by Peter Conrad
  • Introduction by Peter Conrad

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 448

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Murray Bail Penguin Books Series: Text Classics

About the Author

Murray Bail's fiction, which includes Eucalyptus, Holden's Performance, Homesickness and The Drover's Wife and Other Stories, has won a number of major awards.

Also by Murray Bail

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  • He.
    An elusive, elliptical, often beautiful thread of recollections and observations, He is not autobiography, or even memoir, but an almost anonymous portrait of a figure passing through time and circumstances. It begins with boyhood in suburban Adelaide after the war. As the narrator remembers the years, the focus shifts forward to the recent past and back again, often within the...
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  • Eucalyptus
    Eucalyptus is the 1999 winner of the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. On a property in western New South Wales, a man named Holland lives with his daughter, Ellen. Over the years, as she grows into a beautiful young woman, he plants hundreds of different gum trees on his land. When Ellen turns nineteen, her father announces...
    By Murray Bail
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  • Camouflage
    Here, by the highly acclaimed and bestselling author of Eucalyptus, is the perfect gem of a Christmas gift. The brilliant title story Camouflage tells the story of Eric Banerjee, an Adelaide piano-tuner sent north to defend Australia in 1942. Accompanying it is one of Bail's masterly pieces of short fiction, The Seduction of My Sister, a weird and compelling account...
    By Murray Bail
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  • Holden's Performance
    Holden's Performance is the sprawling tale of Holden Shadbolt, a guileless and matter-of-fact man, as he passes through the cities and landscapes of Australia. He follows the flamboyant people around him - ex-corporal Frank 'Bloodnut' McBee who woos Holden's mother; his uncle Vern, a shortsighted proofreader with a weakness for eating newspaper with his breakfast cereal; and the crippled artist...
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  • The Pages
    At dawn, two women leave Sydney to drive over the Blue Mountains, into the dry outback landscape and the home of the late philosopher Wesley Antill. A man who thought his name too light for a philosopher, and his ears outlandish. Erica, a philosopher herself, has been asked by her university to review Wesley's work, to read his notes –...
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  • The Voyage
    Frank Delage, a piano manufacturer from Sydney, travels to Vienna, a city immersed in music, to present the Delage concert grand. He hopes to impress with its technical precision, an improvement on the old pianos of Europe. How could he not know his piano is all wrong for Vienna? Perhaps he should have tried Berlin. But a chance meeting with...
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