The Pages - Softcover

"The novel's pleasures... mostly reside in its formal arrangement and Bail's brilliantly distilled, and witty prose" (Times Literary Supplement)

"A curious and intriguing novel... the brilliant skill of the writing makes the world come alive on the page" (Hermione Lee Guardian)

"A nicely written, wonderfully entertaining novel... Philosophy is a big, difficult subject - there is none bigger - that Bail depicts thoughtfully and with sympathetic humour" (The Daily Telegraph)

"Quietly fascinating... Bail's prose is as full of space and glaring, almost painful light as the landscape... This book is as hard and sparse as that landscape, but no less beautiful for that" (Jonathan Gibbs Independent)

"Bail's highly idiosyncratic style resembles a choppy sea in which phrases and images constantly jostle each other to send up a dazzlingly brilliant spray. In addition, his ability to conjure up a character in a paragraph or even a mere sentence is remarkable" (Francis King Literary Review)

What are The Pages?

On a family sheep station in the interior of Australia, a brother and sister work the property while their reclusive brother, Wesley Antill, spends years toiling away in one of the sheds, writing a philosophy.

Now he has died. Erica, a philosopher, is sent from Sydney to appraise his work. Accompanying her is Sophie, who needs a distraction from a string of failed relationships. Her field is psychoanalysis. These two women, each with different views of the world, face a situation they have not experienced before, with surprising results.