Gilgamesh

On a small farm near Nunderup in the far south-west of Australia, Edith lives with her sister Frances and their mother Ada, the nurse whom their father Frank brought home from the First World War. In 1937 her English cousin Leopold arrives with his Armenian friend Aram, the pair making a roundabout journey back from a dig in Iraq, and their tales of distant places, among them the epic of Gilgamesh and his quest for eternal life, open a world beyond her horizon. Edith has a son, Jim, by Aram. Two years later she sets out with the boy to find his father, travelling by way of England to Soviet Armenia, and the coming of war leaves them stranded there. A tale of chance meetings, flight, love and grief.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical, War, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, United Kingdom, Armenia, 1937–1940s

First published

2001

Author's age

53 when first published

ISBN

9780330362757 (Picador, Australia)

9780802117410 (Grove Press, United States)

9781843541820 (Atlantic Books, United Kingdom)

9780802141217 (Grove Press, United States)

9780143790013 (Penguin, Australia)

More

Wikidata