Publisher's synopsis
This masterpiece of Australian fiction was written by Randolph Stow when he was just twenty-two. It won for him the coveted Miles Franklin Award and the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society. A work of mesmerising power, against a background of black-white fear and violence, To the Islands journeys towards the strange country of one man’s soul. Set in the desolate outback landscape of Australia’s north-west, the novel tracks the last days of a worn-out Anglican missionary. Fleeing his mission after an agonising confrontation, he immerses himself in the wilderness, searching for the islands of death and mystery.
Awards
- Winner 1958 Miles Franklin Award
- Winner 1959 ALS Gold Medal
Complementary content
AustLit information trail
Randolph Stow, winner of the Patrick White Award in 1979, was born in Geraldton, Western Australia in 1935. As an undergraduate he published two novels and a collection of poems. Stow tutored in English at the University of Adelaide, studied Anthropology, worked on a mission in the far north of Western Australia, and as assistant to the Government Anthropologist of Papua New Guinea. Since 1969 he has mainly lived in Suffolk, though he has travelled widely in Europe, North America and Asia. Randolph Stow has received many awards and commendations for his literature, including both the Miles Franklin Award and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for To the Islands.
