New edition. 'Know thyself' is a Greek aphorism. But how can she? Something is missing. She can't think what it is. A mysterious amnesiac art dealer, Ruby, is jailed in Australia for the traumatic murder she cannot recall. In her high society life in London, acting the part and role-playing replaced authenticity; she kept up appearances. Then she and her husband Sir Hugo visit Australia, to collect art, and nothing goes to plan. She collides with what she has been running from. Narrated through voices of the main characters, the distinctive, uproarious fragments reveal stories of a performance artist, a musician, and a writer in Australia; a triangular relationship; shattered family life; and the mysteries of amnesia; the gulf between how one appears to oneself and to others. What can't Ruby remember? Has she been wrongfully convicted? Interwoven through the fiction narrative are a series of colour photographic images by Ruth Skilbeck.

"Skilbeck's prose is as measured as poetry, and the way the narration shifts between different characters provides an almost cubist view of people and events...Skilbeck creates some memorable characters." --Kirkus Reviews

Cover art: Blue Fugue by Ruth Skilbeck.

The Antipode Room: An Australian Fugue Novel

ISBN: 9780645842203

No. of pages: 258

No. of colour images: 14

Date of publication: 25 January 2024

For international sales queries write to admin@borderstreambooks.com.au for details on how to order this paperback novel;

For Australian sales only purchase on this website (currently for Australian deliveries only).

This is a new edition of the first novel in the Australian Fugue series. It is published with fourteen colour photographic works by the author and without the nonfiction medical, literary cultural history segments in the first editions. This edition is also available in paperback and ebook (for information please email: Ruth.Skilbeck@borderstreambooks.com.au)