Review: Where the Line Breaks, Michael Burrows

The first book I managed to read in the first 6 weeks of my crazy trip. Not even giving birth gave me such a long reading hiatus.

Michael Burrows was my fellow shortlister for the Fogarty Literary Award with his manuscript, and I am proud to have measured anywhere near what he has achieved with this creative, ambitious tale.

At uni we would have called this historiographic metafiction, a fancy way of saying it blends history with fiction in a form that visibly plays with the artifice of a novel's structure, instead of hiding it as with a normal sort of story. Think Jeanette Winterson, or Italo Calvino.

It's about London academic Matt Denton, trying to prove through an research thesis that decorated WWI hero Alan Lewis VC is the Unknown Digger (a hugely popular but anonymous soldier poet of the First World War; Australia's very own Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon, his manuscripts only found after death).

The thesis about the war hero is actually written out, in academic form and language, complete with footnotes on every page. These not only stack up the references but digress into Matt's personal story, told in first person, as he falls hard in love with his girlfriend, and struggles to live up to his lofty subject.
As if this isn't enough, it's interspersed with a present-tense narrative set from 1915, telling Alan's story... one that veers ever further from the official line.

For an exhausted mum this is a lot to keep track of. But I am glad I persisted as the early romantic scenes become a deeper, more desperate story.

Matt's characterisation, his potty-mouthed Aussie take on London life, is a highlight, giving light relief from the heaviness of Lewis' narrative. Much of the pace comes from the alarm bells that start ringing early about his career and relationship. And spectacular twists keep you guessing until the end.

This is a novel about how we construct our heroes and our histories, about the brutal reality behind Australia's most beautiful poetry, and about the choices we make when push comes to shove. An assured, impressive debut.