Steve Toltz

Steve Toltz
Toltz at the 2016 Texas Book Festival
Toltz at the 2016 Texas Book Festival
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAustralian
SpouseMarie Peter-Toltz
Website
SteveToltz.com

Steve Toltz (born 1972 in Sydney) is an Australian novelist.

Early life and education

Toltz attended Killara High School and graduated from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1994. Prior to his literary career, he lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York City, Barcelona, and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, English teacher, and screenwriter.[citation needed]

Works

A Fraction of the Whole, his first novel, was released in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. It is a comic novel which tells the history of a family of Australian outcasts. The narration of the novel alternates between Jasper Dean, a philosophical, idealistic boy, who grows up throughout the novel and his father, Martin Dean, a philosopher and shut-in described at the start of the novel as "the most hated man in all of Australia". This is in contrast with Terry Dean, Jasper's uncle, whom Jasper describes as "the most beloved man in all of Australia". The novel spans the entirety of Martin's life and several years after (a range never specified in the text, but starting after World War II and ending in the early 2000s), and is set in Australia, Paris, and Thailand.[citation needed]

The novel has repeatedly been compared favourably to John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces.[1][2] A Fraction of the Whole was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize[3] and the 2008 Guardian First Book Award.[4]

His second novel, Quicksand, published in 2015,[5] won the Russell Prize,[6] while his third, Here Goes Nothing, was longlisted for the 2022 Nib Literary Award.[7]

Personal life

Toltz married French-Australian artist and painter Marie Peter-Toltz[8] in 2005. They have one son born in 2012.[citation needed]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Smith, Kyle (9 February 2008). "An Over the Top, Down Under Tale". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  2. ^ "Canada.Com | Homepage | Canada.Com". ocanada.
  3. ^ "First-timers seeking Booker glory". 9 September 2008.
  4. ^ "The Man Booker Prize Longlist".
  5. ^ Jordan, Justine (29 May 2015). "Quicksand by Steve Toltz review – brilliantly dark". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  6. ^ Morris, Linda (8 June 2017). "Steve Toltz's Quicksand wins $10,000 humour writing prize". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Nib Literary Award 2022 longlist announced". Books+Publishing. 1 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  8. ^ Dow, Steve (22 May 2015). "Steve Toltz on Quicksand: I exaggerate a part of my alter ego for fictional purposes". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
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