Candle Life
  • Published: 1 May 2006
  • ISBN: 9781741661200
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.99

Candle Life

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2012
Tr. Paperback
1 May 2006
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Dealing with the nature of reality and dreams, of love, identity, despair and salvation, this is a truly brilliant and startlingly original novel.

Dealing with the nature of reality and dreams, of love, identity, despair and salvation, this is a truly brilliant and startlingly original novel.

An Australian novelist is living in an arts community in Paris, trying to write. He is mourning the death of the love of his life, Kiko. Still drowning in grief, one day he is harassed by a beggar, who claims to be a famous American writer, Sonny Lee. As his life is penetrated by Sonny it begins to unravel. Soon the novelist encounters Zoya, a mute Russian girl with whom he makes love, and in turn she introduces him to Les Belles Endormies - a place where, after drinking a potent green tea, clients fall asleep and experience hallucinogenic dreams about episodes in their past.

In the meantime the death of a friend brings the novelist into contact with Emilie, and slowly love begins to seem possible to him again. The story moves from Paris's artistic community to the maelstrom of a dance party in the city's streets to its chilling subterranean catacombs to the eerie thermal springs of Pamukkale in Turkey.
  • Published: 1 May 2006
  • ISBN: 9781741661200
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.99
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About the author

Venero Armanno

Venero (Veny) Armanno the author of two short story collections, Jumping at the Moon and Travel Under Any Star, and nine critically acclaimed novels. These include Black Mountain, The Dirty Beat, Romeo of the Underworld and Candle Life. His novel Firehead was shortlisted in the 1999 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award; in 2002 The Volcano won the award with Best Fiction Book of the year. His works have been published in the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Israel and South Korea. Veny is a trained screenwriter and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Queensland.

portrait photo of Venero Armanno

Also by Venero Armanno

The Volcano
The Lonely Hunter
Romeo Of The Underworld
My Beautiful Friend
Firehead
Strange Rain
See all

Praise for Candle Life

Praise for THE VOLCANO:

'This enormous, irresistible novel… is full of feeling and details, wholehearted and lush.' - Australian Book Review

'Armanno writes with real emotional sincerity about passion and cultural displacement, making this his best book to date.' - The Sund-Herald

Praise for CANDLE LIFE:

‘A wonderful achievement, epic in scope, of lyrical beauty and grandeur' - The Canberra Times

‘Venero Armanno has written a novel of rare distinction - intensely fluent, deeply accessible, and irresistibly readable. Highly recommended’ - The Canberra Times

‘Armanno's new novel is a work of considerable interest and originality’. - Adelaide Advertiser

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