The Plains : Text Classics

Twenty years ago, when I first arrived on the plains, I kept my eyes open. I looked for anything in the landscape that seemed to hint at some elaborate meaning behind appearances.

There is no book in Australian literature like The Plains. In the two decades since its first publication, this haunting novel has earned its status as a classic. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, ‘a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself’.

Mix & match your favourite Text Classics. Buy five of your choice for only $50 by clicking here.

Wayne Macauley discusses why The Plains is his favourite Australian novel, in a piece published in the Weekend Australian on 5 May, 2012. Read the article here.

Praise for The Plains:

‘Murnane is quite simply one of the finest writers we have produced.’

Peter Craven

‘A distinguished, distinctive, unforgettable novel.'

Shirley Hazzard

‘Gerald Murnane is unquestionably one of the most original writers working in Australia today and The Plains is a fascinating and rewarding book…The writing is extraordinarily good, spare, austere, strong, often oddly moving.’

Australian

‘A piece of imaginative writing so remarkably sustained that it is a subject for meditation rather than a mere reading…In the depths and surfaces of this extraordinary fable you will see your inner self eerily reflected again and again.’

Sydney Morning Herald