Description of book
'What is a spy? Are they born, or are they made?'
With these words, Vincent Austin analyses his future occupation. Some spies are made, he says, but his kind is born. He is devoted to secrecy for its own sake.
Vincent is orphaned early, and his boyhood in Tasmania is spent with an elderly aunt. His fascination with secrecy and espionage - and much else besides - is shared to an uncanny degree by Erika Lange, daughter of a post-World War German immigrant. She too has lost her mother, and she and Vincent see themselves as twin spirits, inhabiting a shared, platonic world of fantasy and ritual.
At University, Vincent aims to enter Foreign Affairs - an ambition shared by his easygoing friend Derek Bradley. However, in his final year, Vincent is recruited by ASIS - Australia's overseas secret intelligence service - and his adolescent dream becomes reality. Erika becomes a journalist, eventually entering the overseas service as a press officer. She is an attractive and magnetic woman, but her emotional life is chaotic.
She, Vincent and Bradley meet again in 1982, when they are in their thirties, and have all been posted to the Australian Embassy in Beijing. Here, Erika and Bradley begin an affair which is ultimately doomed to fail. At the same time, Vincent attempts an espionage coup which ends in disaster for himself and Bradley.
Both men are expelled from China, and are based in Canberra, where Vincent is confined to the ASIS Registry: the 'memory room' of the book's title. This is the year of Star Wars, and the final phase of the Cold War.
Erika, also returning to Australia, becomes a television journalist, and enjoys a period of national prominence. The fantasies of youth have become reality for Erika and Vincent, and lead to a tragic climax for them both. It is left to Bradley, who inherits Vincent's diaries, to contemplate their fate.
Although THE MEMORY ROOM deals with espionage, its aims go far beyond those of a thriller. A psychological study of a brilliant but eccentric secret intelligence operative, it is also an exploration of the mystical nature of secrecy itself, and of the consequences of a shared obsession.
Reviews
“A master of storytelling. I have been particularly touched by Koch's perceptive impressions of China.'
Simon Leys, THE AUSTRALIAN
“No other Australian novelist . . . has interpreted so eloquently the highlights of Australian experience. Establishes Koch as the leading novelist of the day”.
Leonie Kramer, THE AUSTRALIAN LITERARY REVIEW
'The mystique of secrecy has always fascinated Christopher Koch. It has glimmered in books he has written in the past . . . and it lies at the heart of his mesmerising new novel, The Memory Room, set in the last days of the Cold War.'
Nikki Barrowclough, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'Spies, lies, love, betrayal and nostalgia - a heady mix handled with consummate ease by one of Australia's best writers. A marvellous novel.'
Alison Pressley, GOOD READING MAGAZINE
'The characters are alive and interesting: we care for them and wonder what will be their fate. The plot develops seamlessly, tensions build without any self-indulgent intrusions of literary effects . . . The diverse locations of the action, in turns familiar and exotic, are suggested with spare and effective atmospheric touches. Koch, who is an admirer of Edward Hopper's art as well as a reader of Chinese classics, knows the virtue of the void: can one call empty a room that is filled with vibrant light?'
Simon Leys, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
'In The Memory Room, Koch has extended his range of interest in the way human beings interact, and most particularly in the early experiences that shape their secret lives and their desire for power over others. His prose is often close to lyrical poetry, full of nuances and innuendo . . . It also accomodates the larger events of history, represented here by the Russian and Maoist revolutions. I know of no other contemporary Australian novelist who has interpreted so eloquently the highlights of Australian experience over generations, in so many settings at home and abroad.'
Leonie Kramer, THE AUSTRALIAN LITERARY REVIEW
'What the reader encounters in The Memory Room, while it is gripping as a thriller, is an extraordinary, multi-layered, beautifully written story where the central mystery is not espionage revelations or superpower machinations (though we get glimpses and echoes of these, and some very interesting and wide-ranging political discussions), but the central mystery of Being, the journey of the soul.'
Sophie Masson, QUADRANT
'Koch is superb at evoking place: he is excellent on the nastiness that lurks beneath the surface of Beijing . . . I enjoyed the book throughout.'
Jake Kerridge, DAILY TELEGRAPH, London
'The entwining of the three central characters is absorbing and compelling.'
David Connett, SUNDAY EXPRESS, London
'While espionage may be the book's stage, spying is simply the backdrop against which a much more profound and and rich personal drama is played out.'
Andy Bull, THE TABLET, London
'Koch has created a flawed genius whose trajectory comprises a modern tragedy, with a sense of foreboding that is never far from the surface.'
Ruth Wildgust, THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST, Cork