The Biographer [Paperback]

Virginia Duigan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

Greer Gordon lives in Italy with Mischa Svoboda, a driven Czech-born painter with a booming international reputation. Their explosive love affair caused Greer to abandon her husband and job, to sever all contact with home, and to embark upon a nomadic life with Mischa. Tony, a young American art critic, has been researching a biography of Mischa and has come to the small Italian hilltop community where they now live to interview the artist. Greer is consumed by anxiety, fearing Tony may have unearthed a buried secret she had intended to write out of her life story. It soon becomes clear that Tony is manipulating the couple in order to produce a more exciting conclusion to his book. As her hand is slowly forced, Greer must finally examine her past actions, and in the process she makes a life-changing discovery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this searingly honest novel from Australian author Duigan (Days Like These), Greer Gordon, who abandoned her husband for celebrated Czech painter Mischa Svoboda after meeting Mischa at a Melbourne art gallery, must re-examine that choice 25 years later, prompted by the arrival of Tony Corbino, a young L.A. art critic who's working on Mischa's biography, at the Tuscan art colony where Mischa and Greer (aka Gigi Svoboda) now reside. Since Tony has unearthed an explosive secret about Greer, his dogged interviews leave her terrified. Rereading the diary she kept during her whirlwind romance with Mischa, Greer worries that Tony will confront her. But when the truth comes out, Greer encounters insights she doesn't anticipate, brilliantly expressed in lyrical prose. The wife of film director Bruce Beresford, Duigan explores the boundaries that should and shouldn't be crossed in biography as Greer realizes she can't rewrite or delete the past. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Virginia Duigan is a former film and television writer who has contributed to the Observer and the Times. She is the author of Days Like These.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Random House Australia (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741667151
• ISBN-13: 978-1741667158
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,739,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.