This is an absolutely stunning book. Malouf deals with themes such as place, space and language through the historical timeframe of Ovid's exile, whilst exploring the perplexities of the Australian landscape and history. I have read this book over and over again and it is always as magical as the first time I read it. ( )

David Malouf creates the life of Ovid in his exile by the Black Sea. This is the story of a lost spirit - Ovid no longer has Roman society to entertain and embarrass. His spirit flies from him when he's exiled, and shows up symbolized in a little boy. Ovid's soul gradually comes back to him as he becomes more a member of the foreign community.

This is a lovely, artful story, and Malouf has a fan in this reviewer. ( )

I thought this would be a regular historical fiction, about the banishment of the Roman Poet Ovid to a hamlet between the steppes and the Black Sea, by the Emperor Augustus. While it does talk about time and place it is also a more philosophical book.

Malouf has Ovid explore the idea that man and his striving have created the human concept of nature and gods. The working of man on the land has shaped it from one generation to the next. Each generation starts higher up the ladder from nothing to civilization, and builds upon it. Each sees where they start as virgin nature, but in fact it is an artifact created by those of the past.

The use of language also creates gods as the physical work creates nature. If something can be defined, or labeled, it begins to exist. Once it exists, it takes shape.

Ovid is exiled for unspecified crimes. He is in a hamlet, but totally alone because no one else speaks his language. He struggles with the harsh, empty, land which has harsh weather, and no sign of human care.

One fall on a hunt he sees a feral child. The child brings him back to his childhood, where there was another feral child. It also helps him make peace in his mind with the ghosts of his family. The feral child, the embodiment of humanity and nature, help Ovid to become more human, and more in touch with nature.

It was a mildly enjoyable read. I am just glad it was short. ( )

http://jwvpk.wordpress.com/2007/10/21... ( )

I have read, re-read and will read again, this beautiful evocation of the exile of the Roman poet, Ovid.