The Great World

The Great World
	First edition
Author	David Malouf
Language	English
Publisher	Chatto & Windus (UK)
Publication date	1990
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Paperback
Pages	332 pp
ISBN	0-7011-3415-1
OCLC	22953897
Dewey Decimal	823 20
LC Class	PR9619.3.M265 G74 1990
Preceded by	Harland's Half Acre
Followed by	Remembering Babylon

The Great World is a 1990 Miles Franklin literary award-winning novel by the Australian author David Malouf.^[1]

Synopsis

It is an epic novel telling the story of two Australians during the turmoil of World War I; and their imprisonment by the Japanese during World War II.

Critical reception

Marion Halligan in The Canberra Times noted that a "paradox that runs through the novel is the idea of weight, and of lightness. The weight of gravity that keeps you in place and makes you belong, the weight of responsibility, of experience as a load of ballast taken on, the mysterious lightness of an unborn baby that seems to offer his mother her true weight in the world, or the premonition of death that combines bird-like flight with the plummeting of a stone."^[2]

Awards

Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, National Fiction Award, 1992: winner^[3]
Prix Femina étranger (France), Best Foreign Novel, 1991: winner^[4]
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1991: winner^[5]
Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, 1991: winner
Commonwealth Writers Prize, South-East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book from the Region Award, 1991: winner^[6]
National Library of Australia National Audio Book-of-the-Year Award, 1990: joint winner

References

^ "Austlit - The Great World by David Malouf". Austlit. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
^ ""Transcendent smallness"". The Canberra Times, 24 February 1990, p23. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
^ "Previous award winners by category". Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
^ "David Malouf Overview". Archived from the original on 21 December 2007.
^ ""Malouf's sixth novel wins Miles Franklin award"". The Canberra Times, 26 June 1991, p5. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
^ "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007.

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[Austlit-1] "Austlit - The Great World by David Malouf". Austlit. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

[CTrev-2] ""Transcendent smallness"". The Canberra Times, 24 February 1990, p23. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

[3] "Previous award winners by category". Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Retrieved 3 October 2022.

[SingaporeUniversity-4] "David Malouf Overview". Archived from the original on 21 December 2007.

[MFA-5] ""Malouf's sixth novel wins Miles Franklin award"". The Canberra Times, 26 June 1991, p5. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

[6] "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007.

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v t e Miles Franklin Award
1957–1959	Voss by Patrick White (1957) To the Islands by Randolph Stow (1958) The Big Fellow by Vance Palmer (1959)
1960–1969	The Irishman by Elizabeth O'Conner (1960) Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White (1961) The Well Dressed Explorer by Thea Astley (1962) The Cupboard Under the Stairs by George Turner (1962) Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott (1963) My Brother Jack by George Johnston (1964) The Slow Natives by Thea Astley (1965) Trap by Peter Mathers (1966) Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally (1967) Three Cheers for the Paraclete by Thomas Keneally (1968) Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston (1969)
1970–1979	A Horse of Air by Dal Stivens (1970) The Unknown Industrial Prisoner by David Ireland (1971) The Acolyte by Thea Astley (1972) No award (1973) The Mango Tree by Ronald McKie (1974) Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert (1976) The Glass Canoe by David Ireland (1977) Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park (1978) A Woman of the Future by David Ireland (1979)
1980–1989	The Impersonators by Jessica Anderson (1980) Bliss by Peter Carey (1981) Just Relations by Rodney Hall (1982) No award (1983) Shallows by Tim Winton (1984) The Doubleman by Christopher Koch (1985) The Well by Elizabeth Jolley (1986) Dancing on Coral by Glenda Adams (1987) No award (1988) Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (1989)
1990–1999	Oceana Fine by Tom Flood (1990) The Great World by David Malouf (1991) Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (1992) The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller (1993) The Grisly Wife by Rodney Hall (1994) The Hand That Signed the Paper by Helen Darville (1995) Highways to a War by Christopher Koch (1996) The Glade Within the Grove by David Foster (1997) Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (1998) Eucalyptus by Murray Bail (1999)
2000–2009	Drylands by Thea Astley (2000) Benang by Kim Scott (2000) Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse (2001) Dirt Music by Tim Winton (2002) Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller (2003) The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2004) The White Earth by Andrew McGahan (2005) The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald (2006) Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (2007) The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll (2008) Breath by Tim Winton (2009)
2010–2019	Truth by Peter Temple (2010) That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (2011) All That I Am by Anna Funder (2012) Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser (2013) All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (2014) The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna (2015) Black Rock White City by A. S. Patrić (2016) Extinctions by Josephine Wilson (2017) The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser (2018) Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko (2019)
2020–present	The Yield by Tara June Winch (2020) The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey (2021) Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (2022) Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran (2023) Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright (2024)