The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories — Michael Wilding

The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories brings together forty-nine outstanding tales, capturing the expansiveness of imagination, the prolific creativity, and the richness of sympathy of Australia's great literary tradition.
The volume spans more than 120 years of Australian fiction and it runs the gamut from traditional realistic works to modern experiments with language and form. Readers will discover the ways in which the cosmopolitan, expatriate experiences of writers such as Christina Stead ("Harmless Affair") and Nobel prize-winning author Patrick White ("Clay") invigorated the genre, and how during the 1960s and 1970s, an exciting and innovative time for Australian fiction, writers responded to international models and experimented boldly with the form. The book includes the great originals, such as Marcus Clarke ("Human Repetends") and Henry Lawson ("The Union Buries Its Dead") and such contemporaries as Helen Garner ("Did He Pay?") and Tim Winton ("My Father's Axe"). There is also a fine piece by Aboriginal writer Oodgeroo ("Carpet Snake"), several non-Anglo-Saxon contributors (including Antigone Kefala, Angelo Loukakis, and Ania Walwicz), and many marvelous stories by women. And of course there are selections by such widely admired modern writers as Peter Carey ("Room No. 5, Escribo") and David Malouf ("The Only Speaker of His Tongue").
The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories is a superb collection that captures the egalitarian spirit of the Australian people even as it celebrates their great literary heritage. It will delight all lovers of fine fiction.