A review by ianbanks
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

5.0

David Malouf has taken William Faulkner's advice that the only story worth writing is about "the human heart in conflict with itself" quite seriously. Not just here but in most of his other novels as well (or, at least, the ones of his that I've read). Here we have the story of Gemmy, a young British man who was washed ashore as a child and has lived as an outsider among the local aboriginal tribes ever since. Then one day he makes his way back to civilisation and discovers that he is an outsider there as well. But, as we realise, so is everyone else in this novel, to lesser or greater degrees. Thematically it is similar to An Imaginary Life, an earlier novel about a boy returned to "civilisation", but it takes the ideas of that story a few steps further and in directions away from where that story went.

Like everything by Mr Malouf it is densely written but also amazingly accessible. It is layered and deep with meaning, but still readable and current in its views.