Readings.com.au: Steven Carroll

Spirit Of Progress

Read our Q&A with Steven Carroll about writing Spirit of Progress.

The thing that makes you, it never goes.

A sleek high-speed train glides silently through the French countryside, bearing Michael, an Australian writer, and his travelling world of memory and speculation.

Melbourne, 1946, calls to him: the pressure cooker of the city during World War II has produced a small creative miracle, and at this pivotal moment the lives of his newly married parents, a group of restless artists, a proud old woman with a tent for a home, a journalist, a gallery owner, a farmer and a factory developer irrevocably intersect. And all the while the Spirit of Progress, the locomotive of the new age, roars through their lives like time′s arrow, pointing to the future and the post-war world only some of them will enter.

′Reading Spirit of Progress was one of the most enjoyable things I have done for a long time...If Graham Greene can have the phrase ′Greene-land′ used to celebrate his fictional world, I hope Steven Carroll gets recognition for the Australia he records. Perhaps it should be called "Carroll-land".′

Steven Carroll's novels The Art of the Engine Driver and The Gift of Speed were both shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2008, The Time We Have Taken won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, South-East Asia and South Pacific region as well as the 2008 Miles Franklin Award, Australia's most prestigious literary prize.

The Time We Have Taken

Winner of the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award.

That exotic tribe was us. And the time we have taken‚ our moment.

One summer morning in 1970‚ Peter van Rijn‚ proprietor of the television and wireless shop‚ pronounces his Melbourne suburb one hundred years old.

That same morning‚ Rita is awakened by a dream of her husband′s snores‚ yet it is years since Vic moved north. Their son‚ Michael‚ has left for the city‚ and is entering the awkward terrain of first love.

As the suburb prepares to celebrate progress‚ Michael′s friend Mulligan is commissioned to paint a mural of the area′s history. But what vision of the past will his painting reveal?

Meanwhile‚ Rita′s sometime friend Mrs Webster confronts the mystery of her husband′s death. And Michael discovers that innocence can only be sustained for so long.

The Time We Have Taken is both a meditation on the rhythms of suburban life and a luminous exploration of public and private reckoning during a time of radical change.

The Lost Life

′This beautiful and poetically attentive novel retrieves a warm, beating heart from Eliot′s haunted, stark, magnificent work of art′ AUSTRALIAN LITERARY REVIEW

They may never have a life together, but they will have their moment. They will have this much.

England, September 1934

Two young lovers, Catherine and Daniel, have trespassed into the rose garden of Burnt Norton, an abandoned house in the English countryside. Hearing the sound of footsteps, they hide, and then witness the poet T.S. (′Tom′) Eliot and his close friend Emily enter the garden and bury a mysterious tin in the earth.Tom and Emily knew each other in America in their youth; now in their forties, they have come together again. But Tom is married, and his wife has no intention of letting him go. What is it that binds Tom and Emily together? What happens when the muse steps out of the shadows?In the enclosed world of an English village one autumn, their story becomes entwined with that of Catherine and Daniel, who are certain in their newfound love and full of possibility.

From one of Australia′s finest writers, this is a moving, lyrical novel about poetry and inspiration, the incandescence of first love and the yearning for a life that may never be lived.

′a fine work ... Carroll′s prose has a sublime rhythmic quality - it is lyrical and precise, almost as if he has sung words onto the page.′ AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

Shortlisted for Barbara Jefferis Award

Shortlisted for ALS Gold Medal 2010

The Art Of The Engine Driver

On a hot summer′s night in the 1950s, the old and the new, diesel and steam, town and country all collide -- and nobody will be left unaffected

As a passenger train leaves Spencer Street Station on its haul to Sydney, a family of three -- Vic, Rita and their son Michael -- are off to a party. George Bedser has invited the whole neighbourhood to celebrate the engagement of his daughter.

Vic is an engine driver, with dreams of being like his hero Paddy Ryan and becoming the master of the smooth ride.

As the neighbours walk to the party, we are drawn into the lives of a bully, a drunk, a restless girl and a young boy forced to grow up before he is ready.

The Art of the Engine Driver is a luminous and evocative tale of ordinary suburban lives, told with an extraordinary power.

′subtle, true and profoundly touching′ Le Monde

′exquisitely crafted ... fresh and irresistible′ Miles Franklin Literary Award Judges

′a little masterpiece′ Hessische Allgemeine

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD, 2002

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX FEMINA ETRANGER, 2005

The Gift Of Speed

The history of his summer is written in the grass ... In 1960 the West Indies arrive in Australia, bringing with them a carnival of music, colour and possibility. Michael, who is sixteen, is enthralled. If, like his heroes, he has the gift of speed, he will move beyond his suburb into the great world ...

And yet, as his summer unfolds, Michael realises that there are other ways to live. When the calypso chorus accompanying Frank Worrell and his team fades, Michael has learnt many things ... about his parents, his suburb, a girl called Kathleen Marsden, and about himself.

The Gift of Speed is a masterful blend of story-telling, memorable characters and a uniquely Australian sensibility by a novelist at the height of his powers.

'A must-read' Bookseller+Publisher

'If, as they say, the past is another country, then Carroll is the ideal guide' Sydney Morning Herald

'Rarely has such an arid place as suburban Melbourne in the heat of 1961 evoked such graceful and tender prose' The Age

SHORLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD, 2005

Steven Carroll was born in Melbourne and grew up in Glenroy. He went to La Trobe University and taught English in high schools before playing in bands in the 1970s. After leaving the music scene he began writing as a playwright and became the theatre critic for The Sunday Age. He has recently given up his lecturing post at RMIT to write full time and lives in Brunswick, Victoria.

His novels The Art of the Engine Driver and The Gift of Speed were both shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2008 The Time We Have Taken won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, South-East Asia and South Pacific region as well as the 2008 Miles Franklin Award,...

The Art Of The Engine Driver

The Art of the Engine Driver is the story of one evening in the lives of the residents of a new outer Melbourne suburb. As a mighty steam train leaves Spencer Street Station on its haul to Sydney, a family of three – Vic, Rita and their son Michael are walking down their street to an engagement party. George Bedser, a shipbuilder from Liverpool, is celebrating the engagement of his daughter, Patsy. He has no family here and has invited the whole street to the party. Vic is an engine driver, looking to be like his hero Paddy Ryan and become the master of the smooth ride. As the neighbours walk to the party using a mixture of description and internal monologue – we hear their stories and are drawn into the lives of a bully, a drunk, a restless young girl and a happy family man. On this hot summer's night the old and the new, diesel and steam, town and country all collide and nobody is left unaffected. This is a distinctly Australian novel in the spirit of Tim Winton and Robert Drewe, a luminous and evocative tale of ordinary suburban lives with an extraordinary power and depth.

The Time We Have Taken

Winner of the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award.

That exotic tribe was us. And the time we have taken, our moment.'

One summer morning in 1970, Peter van Rijn, proprietor of the television and wireless shop, pronounces his Melbourne suburb one hundred years old.

That same morning, Rita is awakened by a dream of her husband's snores, yet it is years since Vic moved north. Their son, Michael, has left for the city, and is entering the awkward terrain of first love.

As the suburb prepares to celebrate progress, Michael's friend Mulligan is commissioned to paint a mural of the area's history. But what vision of the past will his painting reveal?

Meanwhile, Rita's sometime friend Mrs Webster confronts the mystery of her husband's death. And Michael discovers that innocence can only be sustained for so long.

The Time We Have Taken is both a meditation on the rhythms of suburban life and a luminous exploration of public and private reckoning during a time of radical change.

The Lost Life

Two young lovers, Catherine and Jonathan, have trespassed into the rose garden of an abandoned gracious home in the English countryside. Hearing people coming, they hide, and witness the celebrated poet, T.S. (‘Tom’) Eliot, and his close friend, Emily Hale, enter the rose garden and bury a small tobacco tin together.

Tom and Emily knew each other in America in their youth; now middle-aged, they have come together again. But Tom is married, and his wife has no intention of letting him go. Is what binds Tom and Emily stronger than simple nostalgia and a desire to escape their problems in the ‘real’ world?

In the enclosed world of an English village one autumn, their story becomes entwined with Catherine and Jonathan, who are young, certain in their new-found love, and each full of promise.

This is a moving, beautifully written novel of second chances and the luminous experience of first love from one of Australia’s finest writers.

‘a writer worth cherishing. His prose is unfailingly assured, lyrical, poised’ The Australian on The Time We Have Taken.

Steven Carroll went to La Trobe University and taught English in high schools before playing in bands in the 1970s. After leaving the music scene he wrote plays and became theatre critic for the Sunday Age. He is the author of the The Gift of Speed and The Art of the Engine Driver, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and The Time We Have Taken, for which he won the 2008 Miles Franklin Award and also the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the South-East Asia and South Pacific region. He lives in Melbourne with his partner and son. England, September 1934.