Conditions of Faith

Proof copy. 8vo., [iv], 297, [1, blank] pp. Pictorial wraps.

Author's fifth novel. Winner of the 2001 NSW Premier's Prize, and short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award in the same year.

Like Henry James's Isabel Archer before her, Emily Stanton – the heroine of this romance set in bay-side Melbourne, Paris and Chartres in 1923 – is beautiful, headstrong, restless, idealistic, and determined to live life to the full, despite the smothering social conventions of the time.

Purportedly based on a fragmentary 1920s journal bequeathed to the author by his mother. Serialised in 20 episodes on ABC Radio National in 2007. "A wonderful novel of stunning intricacy and beauty." –Michael Ondaatje