The Conversations at Curlow Creek

Calligram design using an excerpt from the book The Conversations at Curlow Creek, by the Australian writer David Malouf.

The calligram was created for a poster and a book cover.

• book review

“Two men spend the night in a hut in the vast, bleak western highlands of Australia in 1827. One is a convicted felon, a captured member of a gang of outlaws working to foment a rebellion among the colony’s oppressed natives. The other is his nemesis, an officer charged with hanging him at dawn. Through their halting conversations, the confluence of their very different lives takes on a mythic quality. Both are exiles from their native Ireland, though from different social strata. […] Malouf relates his complex story slowly, with more interior monologues than direct action. […] Malouf raises existential questions about moral order and justice, depicts the contrast between rich and poor in Ireland and Australia and lyrically describes the landscapes of both countries and the spirits that abide there. The accretion of precise detail rewards the reader with resonating insights. And the surprising epilogue, with its two spiritual resurrections, offers a rich and satisfying denouement.”
—from Publishers Weekly