The Deal
Oct 2024 · Allen & Unwin
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About this ebook
A powerful and perceptive novel from two-time Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller.
'Alex Miller only improves with age. The structure, pacing and mellowness of his new novel, The Deal, make it an understated achievement. Decades of experience are plainly evident in the craftsmanship of this book . . . in Miller's fiction, a serious quest for redemption always sits creatively alongside the confusions and compromises that make our lived experience.' - The Age
It's 1975, and at the threshold of his writing career Andy McPherson is navigating how to be fully present both for his partner, Jo, and their young daughter.
When forced to take a part-time teaching job Andy meets Lang Tzu, a charismatic and intriguing man. Andy is drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship when Lang asks him to prove his friendship by brokering a risky deal for a much-desired piece of art. Andy finally consents despite Jo's opposition. In the process, Andy is in fact negotiating his own deal with himself as an artist and is compelled to face up to the conflict between his conception of art as a creative gift and the realities of the art market.
Powerful and perceptive, Miller's profound and intimate depiction of Jo and her partnership with Andy, and his poignant portrait of Lang's troubled genius, form the beating heart of this beautiful novel.
'Miller's writing is crisp and to the point as he explores complex themes of diaspora and racism stemming from the White Australia policy, intergenerational trauma, the dulling of personal identity that comes with parenthood, and the realities of being an artist in a capitalist world. The Deal is a moving novel about art, friendship, legacy and personal history, for fans of Miller's already compelling catalogue.' - Big Issue
'This novel explores the complexities of friendship, a theme central to Miller's thinking and brought to life in his 2020 biography, Max. It also considers the pros and cons of marriage and parenthood, the fear of failure, the White Australia policy and the elusiveness of art . . . [a] wistful, bittersweet novel, written in Miller's elegant, touching prose.' - Saturday Paper
'Intimate and nuanced set of psychological portraits that operate as the foundation of The Deal . . . Miller proves he is a master at engaging the reader's emotions. Almost any reader is guaranteed to shed a tear as they reach The Deal's conclusion.' - The Australian
'Alex Miller only improves with age. The structure, pacing and mellowness of his new novel, The Deal, make it an understated achievement. Decades of experience are plainly evident in the craftsmanship of this book . . . in Miller's fiction, a serious quest for redemption always sits creatively alongside the confusions and compromises that make our lived experience.' - The Age
It's 1975, and at the threshold of his writing career Andy McPherson is navigating how to be fully present both for his partner, Jo, and their young daughter.
When forced to take a part-time teaching job Andy meets Lang Tzu, a charismatic and intriguing man. Andy is drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship when Lang asks him to prove his friendship by brokering a risky deal for a much-desired piece of art. Andy finally consents despite Jo's opposition. In the process, Andy is in fact negotiating his own deal with himself as an artist and is compelled to face up to the conflict between his conception of art as a creative gift and the realities of the art market.
Powerful and perceptive, Miller's profound and intimate depiction of Jo and her partnership with Andy, and his poignant portrait of Lang's troubled genius, form the beating heart of this beautiful novel.
'Miller's writing is crisp and to the point as he explores complex themes of diaspora and racism stemming from the White Australia policy, intergenerational trauma, the dulling of personal identity that comes with parenthood, and the realities of being an artist in a capitalist world. The Deal is a moving novel about art, friendship, legacy and personal history, for fans of Miller's already compelling catalogue.' - Big Issue
'This novel explores the complexities of friendship, a theme central to Miller's thinking and brought to life in his 2020 biography, Max. It also considers the pros and cons of marriage and parenthood, the fear of failure, the White Australia policy and the elusiveness of art . . . [a] wistful, bittersweet novel, written in Miller's elegant, touching prose.' - Saturday Paper
'Intimate and nuanced set of psychological portraits that operate as the foundation of The Deal . . . Miller proves he is a master at engaging the reader's emotions. Almost any reader is guaranteed to shed a tear as they reach The Deal's conclusion.' - The Australian
A powerful and perceptive novel from two-time Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller.
'Alex Miller only improves with age. The structure, pacing and mellowness of his new novel, The Deal, make it an understated achievement. Decades of experience are plainly evident in the craftsmanship of this ...
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Ratings and reviews
1 review
Ian Wood
- Flag inappropriate
August 14, 2026
very slow to start but picked up at the 70% mark.
About the author
ALEX MILLER is the award-winning author of fourteen novels and a collection of essays and stories. He is published internationally and widely in translation. Miller is twice winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, for The Ancestor Game and for Journey to the Stone Country. He is an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1993 for The Ancestor Game. Conditions of Faith and Lovesong are both winners of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Landscape of Farewell was awarded the Manning Clark Medal for Miller's outstanding contribution to Australian cultural life and the Chinese Best Foreign Novel Award, 2008. Autumn Laing received the Melbourne Prize for Literature, and Coal Creek the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Miller's first work of non-fiction, Max, was shortlisted for the National Biography Award in 2021. A Kind of Confession, his collected letters and diaries, was published in 2023 and was shortlisted in the Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2024.
ALEX MILLER is the award-winning author of fourteen novels and a collection of essays and stories. He is published internationally and widely in translation. Miller is twice winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, for The Ancestor Game and for Journey to the Stone Country. He is an overall w...
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