Season in Purgatory

Book by Thomas Keneally

For the 1993 novel by Dominick Dunne, see A Season in Purgatory.

Season in Purgatory

Author| Thomas Keneally
Language| English
Genre| Literary fiction
Publisher| Collins, London

Publication date

| 1976
Publication place| Australia
Media type| Print
Pages| 223 pp
ISBN| 0002224712
Preceded by| Gossip from the Forest
Followed by| A Victim of the Aurora

Season in Purgatory (1976) is a novel by Australian author Thomas Keneally.[1]

## Plot outline

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The novel is set during the Second World War on the island of Mus, which lies in the Adriatic Sea. David Pelham is a junior medical officer in the British Army who volunteers for battlefield medical work and is parachuted onto the island along with a number of British officers and servicemen. Their aim is to aid Tito's partisans in fighting the occupying Germans.

## Reception

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Clement Semmler gave a warning to his readers regarding the novel's depictions of surgical operations and finished: "Despite its strong stuff, the novel is, as I have said, immensely readable, more so I believe than any other Thomas Keneally has written to date."[2]

Reviewing the novel in The Canberra Times Sandy Murray noted: "Thomas Keneally possesses in rare degree the capacity of conveying with startling reality the most intimate activities of the varied characters in his novels. His pathos is quickly shared with the reader." And concluded: "Thomas Keneally has not dodged the factual crudities of a war situation which bears the stamp of truth. His rugged realities serve to set war in the context of waste and madness where the untamed tantrums of human nature enjoy full play."[3]

## Notes

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* Dedication: To my brother John Patrick[4]
* Author's note: This mere narrative derives from real events that occurred off the Dalmatian coast in 1943 and 1944. However, the characters - with the exception of Tito himself - are entirely fictional and are not meant to refer, either as regards appearance, behaviour or career, to any officer, doctor or partisan who occupied that place and period.[4]

## See also

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* 1976 in Australian literature

## References

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1. ^ National Library of Australia - Season in Purgatory by Thomas Keneally
2. ^ "Mutilated bodies, suffering minds" by Clement Semmler, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 November 1976, p15
3. ^ "Surgeon with the Partisans" by Sandy Murray, The Canberra Times, 8 January 1977, p10
4. ^ a b Austlit - Season in Purgatory by Thomas Keneally

* v
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Novels by Thomas Keneally

* The Place at Whitton (1964)
* The Fear (1965)
* Bring Larks and Heroes (1967)
* Three Cheers for the Paraclete (1968)
* The Survivor (1969)
* A Dutiful Daughter (1971)
* The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972)
* Blood Red, Sister Rose (1974)
* Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
* Gossip from the Forest (1975)
* Season in Purgatory (1976)
* A Victim of the Aurora (1977)
* Passenger (1979)
* Confederates (1979)
* The Cut-Rate Kingdom (1980)
* Schindler's Ark (1982)
* A Family Madness (1985)
* The Playmaker (1987)
* Act of Grace (1988)
* By the Line (1989)
* Towards Asmara (1989)
* Flying Hero Class (1991)
* Chief of Staff (1991)
* Woman of the Inner Sea (1992)
* Jacko (1993)
* A River Town (1995)
* Bettany's Book (2000)
* An Angel in Australia (2000)
* The Tyrant's Novel (2003)
* The Widow and Her Hero (2007)
* The People's Train (2009)
* The Daughters of Mars (2012)
* Shame and the Captives (2014)
* Napoleon's Last Island (2015)
* Crimes of the Father (2016)
* The Soldier's Curse (2016)
* The Unmourned (2017)
* The Power Game (2018)
* Two Old Men Dying (2018)
* The Ink Stain (2019)
* The Dickens Boy (2020)
* Corporal Hitler's Pistol (2021)
* Fanatic Heart (2022)

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