In a village on the island of Corfu, alone in the cottage of a man he's never met, an Australian actor gradually pieces together the strange life story of the writer whose house he is living in. As he explores his surroundings and makes new friends in Corfu, his own life begins to appear to him like an illuminating shadow-play of his absent host's.
Inspired by the life of the little-known Australian writer Kester Berwick, 'Corfu: A Novel' is about friendship, love, the ordinary and extraordinary, exile and home. Ranging across physical landscapes from the Greek islands to Adelaide and the suburbs of London, Robert Dessaix's second novel also meditates on literary landscapes - Homer, Sappho, Cavafy and Chekhov - and demonstrates a writer at the peak of his power.