Sabina Murray grew up in Australia and the Philippines and is currently a member of the MFA faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of Tales of the New World, A Carnivore's Inquiry, Forgery, and The Caprices, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
* One of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2016
* A New York Times Editors' Choice
* A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of 2016
* One of the Washington Independent Review of Books Top 25 Books of
2016 "A novel as vigorous, audacious and unpredictable as Casement
himself . . . [Murray] translates the past into a present as
immediate as it is unnerving." --David Leavitt, New York Times Book
Review "Written beautifully, from the point of view of a writer who
cares deeply . . . That the novel can be so despairingly honest
about a writer's limitations while still be so entertaining says a
lot about Murray's considerable talent." --Brock Clarke, Boston
Globe "A big, ambitious book . . . [with] intelligence and sly
prose . . . Murray is canny in tracing the near-imperceptible
stages by which Casement and Ward land on opposite sides of
bitterly divisive issues . . . She has a knack for alluding to the
era's public events and concerns in a manner that lets us
understand their impact and influence without her laboring over
their details--an indispensable gift for a historical novelist . .
. [A] wise, illuminating novel." --Michael Upchurch, Washington
Post "Expansive . . . Nimbly shifting continents, decades, and
political alliances, Sabina Murray does a brilliant job imbuing
grand chunks of black and white history with color-breathing fire.
Yet there is a haunted feel to the novel . . . Valiant Gentlemen
recreates an entire, magnificent era, exploring identity,
friendship, marriage, love, and grief, tracing the days of two
great men from passionate youth to disenchanted old age. Upstanding
men who chased ideals that would never be realized, who never
viewed themselves as valiant or worthy enough for the age in which
they lived. Men who Murray has, through the power of her keen
writing and sweeping insight, resurrected, letting the heroism of
their lives outshine their small and human frailties." --Siobhan
Fallon, New York Journal of Books "[Murray] ingeniously links two
young friends . . . ultimately the novel is an imaginative
exploration of the tragedy of lost friendship." --Los Angeles Times
"A rich, compulsively readable story of friendship, colonialism,
and the burden of moral ambiguity . . . an engrossing novel, by
turns dark and funny, incisive and tender--an
I-can't-talk-now-I'm-deep-in-Africa kind of read . . . Murray's
language is gorgeously devastating, succinct and muscular, hefting
multiple meanings . . . Virtually every word vibrates with under-
and overtones. Images are nuanced; verbs surprise and delight . . .
Murray shows perfect pitch in dialogue, along with an uncanny
ability to define character, provide exposition, and develop the
plot, sometimes all within the same sentence . . . a leisurely,
penetrating rumination on loving relationships, on loyalty, on the
meaning of valor, on betrayal, on the nature of civilization, and
on the excruciating fun of storytelling itself." --Washington
Independent Review of Books "Richly researched, Murray's epic
rendering of [this] story takes a deep dive into [a] volatile era."
--Toronto Star "This book reveals an impressive breadth of
research, which Murray naturally weaves into her vibrant scenes."
--Dallas News "What Murray's novel does very well is recreate the
surprise and fascination of these men's lives." --VICE "Murray's
meticulous attention to historical detail . . . is an engaging read
filled with vivid characters and edifying perspectives. It will
appeal to history buffs as well as readers of literary fiction."
--Winnipeg Free Press "A fascinating, moving and epic account of
the friendship between two men over 33 years . . . With a wide
canvas of history before her, Murray explores the notions of
national identity, foreign rule and resistance, love, personality,
friendship and betrayal, social justice, suffrage, cruelties
suffered by indigenous peoples, and of course war. It's a difficult
trick to allow your characters to age and wrestle with self-doubt
and the disappointments of the world. Murray carries this off
convincingly." --Missourian "Brimming with exquisite detail and
clever humor . . . [Murray] maintains an impressive balance of
historical accuracy and dramatic momentum, crafting a stellar
fiction that shows how the grand course of history can be shaped by
the smallest disagreements between friends." --Publishers Weekly
(starred review) "An affecting novel about the unraveling of
friendship under the buffetings of history. It's wise enough and
good enough to put on the shelf next to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
novels." --Library Journal "Sabina Murray's Valiant Gentlemen is an
adventure set amid the secret history of the modern world--the
personal revolutions inside the revolutionary Roger Casement, a man
who took part in or bore witness to so much of the history we live
with now, brought to vivid, thrilling life here. This novel is made
out of history but is every bit a modern marvel." --Alexander Chee,
author of The Queen of the Night "Readers will claim this
masterpiece of a novel is a big book, and in terms of being Sabina
Murray's magnum opus, it certainly is. But Valiant Gentlemen was
far too short for my passions, and when I consumed the last page I
felt bereft for days, silently begging the author for more. On this
side of the Atlantic, Murray is our Hilary Mantel." --Bob
Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
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