The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies by Bernard Cohen

A soon-to-be-elected Australian prime minister invokes the spirit of Sir Robert Menzies and astonishingly, the Great Man rises from the grave. But in Canberra, amongst the nation's leaders, the revived Menzies is rarely listened to and hardly visible. Increasingly discontented with his role as mere nostalgic symbol, Menzies escapes from Canberra. He runs westward, becoming larger and more powerful as he runs. this, perhaps the most significant untold story in Australian political history, lands in the lap of the Antibiographer, whose contracted book on Menzies is years behind schedule. Could this be the break the Antibiographer needs to redeem his career? Will he be able to track down the Menziean colossus and save his book and reputation? And can the out-of-control Menzies ever be contained?

Judges' comments

Like the large ghost of the political past which returns to haunt its pages, The Antibiography of Robert F. Menzies is capacious and just beyond the finger tips of our grasp. Post modernist with actual jokes, it reads alternatively as realist fiction, biography, political satire or the wittiest PhD exegesis there has ever been. The fact that Cohen’s novel is one in an elegant state of disassembly should not obscure that everything here is in its right place. Its ambitious themes, ridicule and craft takes direct aim at our national woolliness, all the while possessing the inexplicit grace of great fiction.