“George Salis: At almost 600 pages, N (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2014) is your longest novel to date. It’s been compared to Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and even Herbert’s Capricornia. Can you reflect on your time writing this novel and lift the veil on some of the actual influences and guiding stars? Would you consider this novel your magnum opus?

John A Scott: I doubt I have the time/energy/concentration now to write anything of this length—so this has to do for magnum opuses/opera. The opportunity to mix time, place, mode, genre, styles, fact, fiction, and contemporary political commentary—especially in the Abbott era—was an exhausting but liberating experience. The necessary research on Australia during the era of Burke and Wills, etc., and on its artistic communities during the early 40s and at war opened up new avenues for narrative scenarios and for charting new and imagined locations. I bemoan the near-total lack of notice this work received.” Read the full interview here.

I’m proud to present the deleted chapters from N, which offer a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of a prolific author’s mind as it relates to his opus. Read them here.

John A. Scott is an English-Australian writer who has penned over 15 books of poetry and prose. His works have been published in the USA and the UK and have been widely translated. He has received Victorian Premier’s prizes for both poetry (St Clair, 1986) and fiction (What I Have Written, 1994). The film version of What I Have Written (dir. John Hughes), for which he wrote the screenplay, was selected for Competition at the 1996 Berlin and Stockholm Film Festivals and was the winner of the International Mystery Film Festival in Bologna. His Selected Poems (1968-90) appeared in 1995. His novel Before I Wake was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Victorian Premier’s Prize. His subsequent novel, The Architect, was shortlisted for the 2002 Biennial Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Fiction, and the Miles Franklin Award. Warra Warra, a ‘ghost story’ parable of the white invasion of Australia, was published in 2003. A major experimental novel, N, was published by Brandl & Schlesinger in April 2014.