Voss

Patrick White · 1912–1990 · Australia

Why it matters

A monomaniacal German explorer marches into the Australian desert chasing his own destruction, his fate entwined telepathically with a Sydney spinster he barely knows. White's visionary masterpiece made the outback the site of a nation's psychological reckoning.

At a glance

Dense, symbol-thick prose and shifting, near-mystical interiority resist a quick read.