A striking first novel of contemporary life and manners from award-winning biographer ('Rose Boys') and poet, Peter Rose.
The cast: Julia Collis: a brilliant but unconventional publisher; Candy Collis: an opera singer with a bright future and a dark mother; Matthew Light: a young actor, taken under Julia's wing as a teenage boy, obsessively in love with Roman Anthem; Roman Anthem: the 21-year-old grandson of a legendary Australian prime minister, renowned for his good looks, despised by Julia.
The scene: Valhalla: an incestuous household of steely alliances, lopsided infatuations, and dark impulses.
The plot: Roman Anthem is missing and no one knows why.
Witty, satirical and full of intrigue, set against a backdrop of opera, publishing and politics, Peter Rose's first novel is unlike any other Australian fiction.
