Romulus My Father

`A sustained dialogue with the past from which the present has been born, and an extended essay on madness and death, love and friendship, beauty, truth and morality...Romulus fills every page with his presence.' * Age * `Radiates warmth; Gaita's memoir constantly reinforces not only humanity, but the mystery of being human.' * Weekend Australian * `Enthralling...a tale about madness, suicide, affliction and betrayal...a rare and passionate book, the like of which has seldom been seen in Australia.' * Sydney Morning Herald * `This turbulent and tormented story of a migrant family's life scarred by mental illness, skewed passions and suicide is a troubled tale relieved profoundly by compassion and honesty...its an insight into human hope, dignity and darkness.' * Canberra Times * `Gaita's book is a moving account of his father's commitment to words and of his struggle with a world of feelings that his words cannot get hold of...Tenderness is at the heart of the book.' * Eureka Street * `Extraordinary and beautiful...Gaita's book is about how it is possible to stare into the abyss of nothingness and see beyond it to the redeeming mystery that is life...Romulus, My Father is a profound meditation on love and death, madness and truth, judgment and compassion. It is about so much that matters that is normally so little discussed with so little honesty.' -- Richard Flanagan * Sunday Age * `Consistently astounding...one of the most remarkable works of autobiography I have read for years, a memoir of absolutely compelling tragi-comic quality.' -- Peter Craven * Australian * `Elegantly composed and written, both profoundly moral and perceptive in its social observations...It is a tragic, uplifting book whose eponymous hero emerges as one of the more magnetic creations in recent Australian writing.' -- 1998 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards