The Life: A Novel

The Life by Malcolm Knox is an amazing novel. It is the story of former surfing champion Dennis Keith, now an overweight and paranoid obsessive/compulsive, living with his mother in her retirement village. His surfing life turned sour when fame and drugs robbed him of all he valued. The stories he thought he had buried are reawakened with the sudden appearance of a journalist who seems hell-bent of finding out about the elusive surfing legend. This is not an easy read, but it is certainly worth the effort. - Susi

The Life, by Malcolm Knox, has been on the pile by the bed for a while. I finished it a few days ago and it is an absolute gem, one of the best books I've read this year. Tim Winton loved it and, if you've read Breath, it is just about essential reading. Please don't miss this brilliant portrayal of a life lived dangerously in the heyday of Australian surfing. - Tim

He looked into the Pacific and the Pacific looked back into him.

The Life tells the story of former-world-champion Australian surfer, Dennis Keith, from inside the very heart of the fame and madness that is 'The Life'. Now bloated and paranoid, former Australian surfing legend Dennis Keith is holed up in his mother's retirement village, shuffling to the shop for a Pine-Lime Splice every day, barely existing behind his aviator sunnies and crazy OCD rules, and trying not to think about the waves he'd made his own and the breaks he once ruled like a god.

Years before he'd been robbed of the world title that had his name on it - and then drugs, his brother and the disappearance and murder of his girlfriend had done the rest. Out of the blue, a young would-be biographer comes knocking and stirs up memories Dennis thought he'd buried. It takes Dennis a while to realise that she's not there to write his story at all.

Daring, ambitious, dazzling, The Life is also as real as it gets - a searing, beautiful novel about fame and ambition and the price that must sometimes be paid for reaching too high.

Colin Roderick Award for Jamaica.

Walkley-Award-winning journalist.