Mahler Erasures

Once a feted literary figure and the former lover of B-list movie star Lucida, Harold Lime is now a derelict, incontinent, asexual, ageing poet, who turns his back on material modernity. Withdrawing to a basement in the university town of Cambridge, England, he seeks isolation. However, human connections prove difficult to sever completely, as he is drawn out of himself by a fox hunt saboteur (referred to as 'the sab woman'). They form a poignant, uneasy relationship, acting as mutual confessors.

In the isolation of his basement, Harold Lime obsessively listens to Mahler. The composer's nine symphonies, unfinished tenth, and Earth Songs each correspond to a separate chapter of this innovative poetic novel, Mahler Erasures. These compositions reawaken the sensitivities Harold has tried to erase, taking him back to his Australian childhood and youth. This brings about a growing awareness of the intertwined nature of body and soul, commitment and connectedness, and the ecology of rootedness and unrootedness in an unjust world.