Antoni Jach – November 3 2019

Antoni is a novelist, poet, playwright and painter. As an artist, his paintings have been on display in an exhibition at Le Globo in Paris and as a writer, his first unpublished novel, Dina Club, was shortlisted in 1990 for The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. Antoni’s interest in Europe, particularly France and its intellectuals, inspired both Napoleon’s Double and his exploration of Paris in The Layers of the City. His other published works include the novel, The Weekly Card Game, a book of poetry, An Erratic History, a history of Australia in poetry, and two plays, Miss Furr and Miss Skeene and Waiting for Isabella. Antoni holds a BA in English & Art History from La Trobe University and a PhD from The University of Melbourne. He was a lecturer in creative writing at RMIT University for many years, and is the publisher at Modern Writing Press and an editorial adviser at the literary journal, Heat.

Napoleon’s Double
Giramondo Publishing, 2007; ISBN 9781920882235
Seven conscripts from a village near Dijon follow Napoleon on his campaign to conquer Egypt. One, who looks like Napoleon, is commanded to serve as his double, a decoy for assassins. The Sphinx and the desert sands, the seraglios of Cairo and the waters of the Nile hold them in thrall. Three die and a year later the survivors sail with Nicholas Baudin on his expedition to New Holland. Again they are threatened, by disease and starvation, and again their sense of wonder allows them to transcend misfortune. But only one will survive, to tell their tale from a slab hut in Rose-Hill, a short distance from the fledgling settlement of Sydney-Town. Part contemporary novel, enlisting history and philosophy for its own baroque ends, and part fable, in the style of Borges and Calvino, Napoleon’s Double is a tribute to the power of story-telling and belief.

The Layers of the City
Hodder Headline, 1999; ISBN 9780733609442
If you wish to understand the many layers of the city then you need to picture in your mind’s eye a cross-section of the city. In this mesmerising and highly original work, Antoni Jach conjures up the modern city – its street life and underground life, its beggars and bourgeoisie, its public parks and gardens, its hidden apartments and rooms – and meditates on the layers of civilization and barbarism which have gone into its making. Tumbling through space and time, he takes us also to fifth century Provence, with the Romans polishing their rhetoric behind their city walls while the barbarians wait at the gates. A novel filled with wit and humour.