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Last Letter to a Reader
The final work by Gerald Murnane
In early spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane began a project which would round off his career as a writer – he would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary archives, the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written for publication. But as the reports grew, they themselves took on the form of a book, Last Letter to a Reader. The essays on each of his works travel through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances which gave rise to the writing, images, associations, reflections on the theory of fiction, and memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration which accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving ending as death approaches.
Praise for Gerald Murnane:
No living Australian writer, not even Les Murray, has higher claims to permanence or a richer sense of distinctionSydney Morning Herald
The emotional conviction…is so intense, the somber lyricism so moving, the intelligence behind the chiseled sentences so undeniable, that we suspend all disbelief.J.M. Coetzee
Last Letter to a Reader was published in the United Kingdom and United States of America by And Other Stories in May 2022.
About the Author
Reviews
He sees fiction as a kind of bridge between worlds, allowing ghostly fictional personages to travel through our mental landscapes. Those fictional personages have at least as much agency as us, and they populate our minds in accordance with their own needs and inclinations. We become their vessels.
The Monthly
