Chinese Postman

Abraham Quin is about seventy-five: a migrant, three times divorced, once a postman and then a professor, and now a writer on his own in the Adelaide Hills. In the slow, reflective idleness of old age he looks back, turning over memories and fears, fixations and opinions, and thinking about being alone, about writing, friends and time, wandering off wherever his thoughts take him. He becomes more and more caught up in exchanging letters with Iryna Zarebina, who has fled Ukraine. The letters open him up to others; his sadness gives way to pleasure in words and in nature's little happenings, while ageing, antisemitism, prejudice against Chinese people and the insecurity of a writer's life run beneath his reflections.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

Australia

First published

2024

Author's age

74 when first published

ISBN

9781923106130 (Giramondo Publishing, Australia)