Mortal Divide: The Autobiography Of Yiorgos Alexandroglou.

Giramondo is proud to republish George Alexander’s award-winning novel Mortal Divide, one of the great works of fiction on the relationship between migration and identity in Australian literature. Should be read with Evelyn Juers’ recent Giramondo biography The Dancer: A Biography for Philippa Cullen, in which the author plays a leading role. A novel which mixes fiction and biography, imagination and memory, Mortal Divide is even more striking now for its literary innovation and inventiveness than when it was first published twenty-five years ago. It focusses on the eponymous narrator George Alexander who, as Yiorgos Alexandroglou, is both the narrator himself under his Greek name, and his grandfather, whose name he carries. Suffering a breakdown in confidence because of the stresses in his marriage, and the failure of his vocation as a writer, he finds himself in Perth where he was raised, then in Port Said where he was conceived, then in Kastellorizo, the tiny Greek island just off the Turkish coast, which was the home of his ancestors. These places and others he has lived in are overlaid, like the figures from his past, his parents and grandparents, his wife and daughters and lovers, his own multiple identities and those he has drawn from films and books. The result is an intricate interweaving of connections, the associations doubling, tripling, proliferating, in proof that ‘elsewhere is inscribed everywhere’. WINNER: NSW Premier’s Literary Award 1999 One of the great works of fiction on the relationship between migration and identity in Australian literature, first published in 1997. A groundbreaking novel which combines fiction and biography, memory and imagination, Mortal Divide is even more striking now for its range and inventiveness than when it was first published twenty-five years ago. It focuses on the eponymous narrator George Alexander who, as Yiorgos Alexandroglou, is both the author himself under his Greek name, and his grandfather, whose name he carries. Suffering a breakdown in confidence because of the stresses in his marriage, and the failure of his vocation as a writer, he finds himself in Perth where he was raised, then in Port Said where he was conceived, then in Kastellorizo, the tiny Greek island just off the Turkish coast, which was the home of his forebears. These places and others he has lived in are overlaid, like the figures from his past, his parents and grandparents, his wife and daughters and lovers, his own multiple identities and those he has drawn from films and books. The result is an intricate interweaving of connections, the associations doubling, tripling, proliferating, in proof that ‘elsewhere is inscribed everywhere’. Mortal Divide is a miracle: a book that gives us an out-of-body experience, while also reconciling us to our mortal, finite, bruised and beautiful bodies. Adrian Martin An anti-oedipal odyssey, Joycean roman à clef, migrant memoir, and Orphic mini-epic...The value of Mortal Divide is in its bold pace, visual density, and dignified humour. Adam Aitken A brilliant, black-humoured study of masculinity in crisis, George Alexander tries to figure out how one ‘dreams oneself together as a man’. Kathleen Mary Fallon An incredible work of Australian literature...Still as astonishing to readers as it was 25 years ago, Mortal Divide is ageing superbly. Samuel Bernard "A groundbreaking novel which mixes fiction and biography, imagination and memory, Mortal Divide is even more striking now for its literary innovation and inventiveness than when it was first published twenty-five years ago. It focuses on the eponymous narrator George Alexander who, as Yiorgos Alexandroglou, is both the narrator himself under his Greek name, and his grandfather, whose name he carries. Suffering a breakdown in confidence because of the stresses in his marriage, and the failure of his vocation as a writer, he finds himself in Perth where he was raised, then in Port Said where he was conceived, then in Kastellorizo, the tiny Greek island just off the Turkish coast, which was the home of his ancestors. These places and others he has lived in are overlaid, like the figures from his past, his parents and grandparents, his wife and daughters and lovers, his own multiple identities and those he has drawn from films and books. The result is an intricate interweaving of connections, the associations doubling, tripling, proliferating, in proof that 'elsewhere is inscribed everywhere'."--Back cover Mortal Divide is "autofiction", a self-denying narrative that highlights the rival clarities of document and memoir. Winner of 1999 NSW Premiers Literary Award The Autobiography of Yiorgos Alexandroglou With enormous energy and scarifying honesty, George Alexander takes the measure of his world on his own pulse, fusing fiction with autobiography, in what is surely one of the most literary achievements to come out of Australia this decade. Ivor Indyk It is difficult to think a better prose writer in Australia today This is funny and fearless reflection on identity and modern life Dean Kiley