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The Book of Dirt

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The Book of Dirt
AuthorBram Presser
LanguageEnglish
GenreLiterary novel
PublisherText Publishing
Publication date
28 August 2017
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages300 pp.
Awards2018 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, winner
ISBN9781925240269

The Book of Dirt is a 2017 novel by the Australian author Bram Presser originally published by Text Publishing.[1]

It was the winner of the 2018 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.,[2] and the 2018 Voss Literary Prize.[3]

Synopsis

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The novel follows the narrator, named Bram Presser, as he seeks to understand the war-time experiences of his grandparents, Jakub Rand and Daša Roubíčková. Originally from Poland, they were deported from there to Theresienstadt, and later to the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Based on the couple's writings and correspondence, Presser attempts to document their life's journey.

Critical reception

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Reviewing the novel in Australian Book Review Anna MacDonald compared the structure and approach of Presser's novel to the work of W. G. Sebald: "As in Sebald’s prose narratives, Presser’s novel inhabits the dynamic region between fiction and non-fiction. The narrator is also named Bram Presser. The archive, and the problems associated with memory and historical representation are ever-present. The Book of Dirt integrates word-text alongside family photographs, reproductions of letters and archival documents, and pictures taken by the author, a number of which echo photographs that appear in Austerlitz."[4]

Jerath Head, writing for Sydney Review of Books commented: "Presser draws strands together–historical, cultural, geographical, familial–to create something living, to prevent past atrocities from crystallising and slipping into memory as isolated events that don’t continue to effect the present. The Book of Dirt is both a loving, honest portrayal of lives that would have been erased, and an incorporation of the broader lessons of their experience into contemporary mythology."[5]

Awards

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser (Text)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 12 May 2025.
  2. ^ a b Morris, Linda (30 April 2018). "Stories of ancestral memory storm NSW Premier's Literary Awards". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Presser wins 2018 Voss Literary Prize for 'The Book of Dirt'". 7 December 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. ^ ""The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser"". Australian Book Review, November 2017. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
  5. ^ ""What Fills the Silence: The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser"". Sydney Review of Books, 30 April 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2025.