Last Letter to a Reader was published in the United Kingdom and United States of America by And Other Stories in May 2022. In 2018 the New York Times described him as the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of and tipped him as a future Nobel Prize winner. The emotional conviction…is so intense, the somber lyricism so moving, the intelligence behind the chiseled sentences so undeniable, that we suspend all disbelief. Gerald Murnane is one of Australia’s most important contemporary authors, but for years was neglected by critics. No living Australian writer, not even Les Murray, has higher claims to permanence or a richer sense of distinction Sydney Morning Herald The final essay is on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration which accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving ending as death approaches. Before long he signposts what he is up to with a witty reference to Italo Calvino, and I am reminded of Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night. It’s not ‘easy’ but it’s not meant to be: Gerald Murnane is not that kind of writer. The essays on each of his works travel through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances which gave rise to the writing, images, associations, reflections on the theory of fiction, and memories of a deeply personal kind. Inland is a strange adventure that plays with your mind from the first page. But as the reports grew, they themselves took on the form of a book, Last Letter to a Reader. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary archives, the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written for publication. In early spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane began a project which would round off his career as a writer – he would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. Last Letter to a Reader quantity Buy for $26.95

Inland by Gerald Murnane