''The Bath Fugues'' is a 2009 novel by Australian novelist

Brian Castro Brian Albert Castro (born 16 January 1950) is an Australian novelist and essayist. Biography Castro was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Australia since 1961. He was Chair of Creative Writing (2008-2019) at the University of Adelaide and Di ...

Plot summary

''The Bath Fugues'' is a novel of three sections, all interconnecting and modelled on the structure of the Goldberg variations. The first section, "Beckett's Bicycle", tells the story of Jason Redvers, an art forger and writer. The second, "Walter's Brief", concerns Redvers's grandfather Camilo Conceicao, a Portuguese poet. The last, "Sarraute's Surgery", is set in and around Port Douglas in Queensland and features local GP, Judith Sarraute, who had been Redvers's doctor when she was still practising in Sydney.

Notes

Epigraph: * The Goldberg Variations...are a set of 30 variations for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. First published in 1741...the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form. It is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may have been the first performer. Wikipedia * It is, in short, music which observes neither end nor beginning, music with neither real climax nor real resolution, music which like Baudelaire's lovers rests lightly on the wings of the unchecked wind. Glenn Gould

Reviews

* ''The Sydney Morning Herald''''The Sydney Morning Herald'', "The Bath Fugues by Brian Castro" by Andrew Reimer, 9 June 2009
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Awards and nominations

* 2010 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) — Award for Fiction * 2010 shortlisted

Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–19 ...

* 2010 shortlisted Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Best Fiction Book * 2010 shortlisted

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

— The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bath Fugues, The 2009 Australian novels Novels set in Queensland Giramondo Publishing books