The Diplomat
"A harsh, brave and necessary addendum to Cairo. Bravo.”- Tim Rogers
Readings Book of the Month
1991. Fresh out of detox and five years after his involvement in the theft of Picasso's masterpiece The Weeping Woman from the NGV, Edward Degraves - art forger and drug addict - returns to Melbourne for a new start. All he needs to do is make one last visit to The Diplomat, a seedy motel renowned for its drug dealers and eccentrics.
But Edward's new-found sobriety is both a torment and a gift. As he revisits old haunts, he is confronted by reminders of the past: ruined relationships, a stalled career as an artist and - looming over everything - the death of his beloved wife Gertrude.
Shot through with grief and dark comedy, The Diplomat is a powerful story of love and recovery - and a stark evocation of the fine line between self-destruction and redemption.
You can order The Diplomat right here
“Nihilistically funny... This is Womersley’s fifth novel. His 2007 debut The Low Road is an unnerving work of crime fiction. Bereft (2010), shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, is a haunting take on the Spanish flu that ravaged Australia in the wake of World War I. He went out on a limb in 2017 with City of Crows, about witchcraft in 17th-century France. It is that range, and that appetite for risk, that makes him one of Australia’s most interesting writers of fiction. ”
“Precise, pungent, pugnacious, anchored in memory and the moment, a story of exile and absence, The Diplomat is a lean, mean hot shot full of grubby grace, faith, hope and charlatanry.”
“The Diplomat is a tremendously moving tale of regret, atonement and redemption; I can’t remember the last time I read a book that manages this with such aplomb. It is easily the best Australian novel I have read since the wonderful In Moonland by Miles Allinson”
“Regret and grief are some bitter pills to try wash down. To write about them with raw tenderness, with all their savage complexity, is mighty. A harsh, brave and necessary addendum to Cairo. Bravo”
“The Diplomat, for all its sad subject matter, is a gripping page-turner of a novel. It is a book that is hard to put down once you have started it. ”
“The Diplomat is funny, on almost every page. Those who’ve staggered through the soothing agony of 12-step programs will laugh out loud at Womersley’s description of ‘the blind beggar leading his companions into a ditch’. There are other droll observations, too many to mention.”
“The brooding, noirish energy of the book is enticing ... Chris Womersley’s sensitivity and moral depth give weight to this study of human frailty.”
“Womersley depicts his protagonist’s less than wholehearted and ultimately bungled attempts to make amends and free himself from his old life with a suitably grim and often acerbic sense of humour. ”
“This is a gem of a novel, full of all the good stuff - love, art, failure, heartbreak - told in a clear, strong voice brimming with loss and longing. A novel of propulsive storytelling and moving depth.”
“Art, addiction and nostalgia swirl in reveries that tie London to Melbourne to the Weeping Woman heist. Edward is so heartbreakingly lost in the everyday, so doomed, that he could have risen from Dostoyevsky. Dark, touching and deeply authentic, this is Womersley at his very best”
“Written close to the bone. I clutched my pearls and then rooted for the protagonist. Both harrowing and wonderful”
“Threw me right back into the grimy inner-city Melbourne streets of the early 90s. Wonderful!”
As a special treat, I’ve made a playlist to accompany The Diplomat. One hundred tracks. All killer, no filler. Listen as you read.