Australian Fugue: The Antipode Room

‘Know thyself’ is a Greek proverb. But what does it mean? How? Something is missing. But she can’t think what it is. Mysterious art dealer Countess Ruby is jailed in Australia for the traumatic murder she cannot recall. In her adopted, art-world high society life in London, acting the part and role-playing replaced authenticity. Ruby, amnesiac, kept up appearances. Then she and husband Sir Hugo Rivers go to Australia, to collect art. She returns to a past life she forgot. A triangular love affair, Margarita and Raymond, troubled artist; a disappeared friend, love, daughter. What is the significance of the woman violinist playing Bach’s Contrapunctus 14 haunting her? Who did what? Australian Fugue: The Antipode Room is first in a forthcoming series by Ruth Skilbeck exploring silencing, trauma, and identity in postcolonial family life, after-affects of unknown hidden histories and mysteries of self in denial, how you appear to self and others, and the need to go beyond disguise, deception, and reinvention, to find truths, lost self-identity, and justice. The author of The Writer’s Fugue, and a cultural essayist, this is her first novel on an issue of complex significance in global contemporary society. When is forgetting salve and when is it denial? To forget, move on, you need first to remember. In this compelling and original first novel, she explores the need to remember and acknowledge the past in order to know truths of identity, lay ghosts, and seek a deeper understanding through the process of art and writing, and justice. “Interesting and valuable…substantial and intriguing.” Thomas Shapcott, Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, at the University of Adelaide, on The Writer’s Fugue, Ruth Skilbeck's book of her PhD research.