The Contemptuary

Monasteries and gaols: David Foster, reflects that
during the course of his life the monasteries have emptied while the gaols are
doing nicely. Set in Goulburn and its surrounds, where Foster resides, The Contemptuary is a lament for a dying
faith, a commentary on prison life and, perhaps unexpectedly from Foster in
this, his sixteenth novel, an unputdownable whodunnit.


'Attempt to characterise Foster's writing and
eventually one will run out of adjectives. There is simply no one remotely like
him in contemporary Australian fiction. He is so far ahead of everyone else
that it's not funny.' - Australian Book Review