The latest offering from the former Booker contender David Malouf is a collection of short stories, most of them set in his native Australia. Each has a distinct tone, but all explore some facet of “the unrecorded and unspoken”: the gaps, silences and omissions in the human world. “After Midnight” follows the meditations of a mother who has shut herself off from her family. “War Baby” sketches the coming-of-age of a young man who has always been an outsider. In “Every Move You Make”, a woman falls intensely in love with a man who will forever remain a mystery to her.
Malouf’s prose is lyrical yet beautifully controlled. “The Domestic Cantata” is particularly well pitched: it records the chaotic tempo of family life and teenage angst, while capturing the subtle, complex resonance between a husband and wife. With an unreserved warmth for all his characters, Malouf delves deep into their emotions, and blends the psychological and the physical. In every story, nature interacts intimately with the human world, whether it’s love causing animal pain or death acting as a regenerative catalyst in someone’s life. Contemplative, ethereal, sharply perceptive, this collection is a fascinating exploration of the inner worlds that separate and connect us all.
