Gilgamesh is a rich, spare, and evocative novel of encounters and escapes, of friendship and love, of loss and acceptance, a debut that marks the emergence of a world-class talent. It is 1937. The modern world, they say, is waiting to erupt. On a tiny farm in far southwestern Australia, seventeen-year-old Edith lives with her mother and sister, Frances. One afternoon two men, her English cousin Leopold and his Armenian friend Aram, arrive -- taking the long way home from an archaeological dig in Iraq. Edith is captivated by the tales they tell of strange peoples, magical journeys, and a world far beyond the narrow horizon of her small town of Nunderup. One such story is the epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian king who adventured throughout the world with his friend the wild man Enkidu, in search of the secret of eternal life.
