{"product_id":"the-brilliant-boy-3a-doc-evatt-and-the-great-australian-dissent-9781760856113","title":"The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent","description":"\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the 2022 Indie Book Awards \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChosen as a 'Book of the Year' in \u003ci\u003eThe Australian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Australian Financial Review\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Australian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIn a quiet Sydney street in 1937, a seven year-old immigrant boy drowned in a ditch that had filled with rain after being left unfenced by council workers. How the law should deal with the trauma of the family's loss was one of the most complex and controversial cases to reach Australia's High Court, where it seized the imagination of its youngest and cleverest member.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e These days, 'Doc' Evatt is remembered mainly as the hapless and divisive opposition leader during the long ascendancy of his great rival Sir Robert Menzies. Yet long before we spoke of 'public intellectuals', Evatt was one: a dashing advocate, an inspired jurist, an outspoken opinion maker, one of our first popular historians and the nation's foremost champion of modern art. Through Evatt's innovative and empathic decision in Chester v the Council of Waverley Municipality, which argued for the law to acknowledge inner suffering as it did physical injury, Gideon Haigh rediscovers the most brilliant Australian of his day, a patriot with a vision of his country charting its own path and being its own example - the same attitude he brought to being the only Australian president of the UN General Assembly, and instrumental in the foundation of Israel.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A feat of remarkable historical perception, deep research and masterful storytelling, \u003ci\u003eThe Brilliant Boy\u003c\/i\u003e confirms Gideon Haigh as one of our finest writers of non-fiction. It shows Australia in a rare light, as a genuinely clever country prepared to contest big ideas and face the future confidently.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'Gideon Haigh has always been an exquisite wordsmith, and he proves here that he is also an intuitive historian and acute biographer with a masterful control of the broad sweep and telling detail' \u003cb\u003eAFR Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'Here is a master craftsman delivering one of his most finely honed works. Meticulous in its research, humane in its storytelling, \u003ci\u003eThe Brilliant Boy\u003c\/i\u003e is Gideon Haigh at his lush, luminous best. Haigh shines a light on person, place and era with the sheer force of his intellect and the generosity of his words. \u003ci\u003eThe Brilliant Boy\u003c\/i\u003e is simply a brilliant book.' \u003cb\u003eClare Wright, Stella-Prize winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Forgotten Rebels of Eureka\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'Gideon Haigh has a nose for Australian stories that light up the past from new angles, and he tells this one with verve, grace and lightly worn erudition. I couldn't put it down.' \u003cb\u003eJudith Brett, \u003ci\u003eThe Saturday Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'An absolutely remarkable, moving and elegant re-reading of the early life of an extraordinary Australian. Gideon Haigh is one of Australia's finest writers and thinkers ... mesmerizing ... one of the best Australian biographies I have read for a long time.' \u003cb\u003eMichael McKernan, \u003ci\u003eCanberra Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Haigh, Gideon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54126250033263,"sku":"9781760856113","price":13.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0693\/4013\/5535\/files\/9781760856113.jpg?v=1787651837","url":"https:\/\/rechapter.com.au\/products\/the-brilliant-boy-3a-doc-evatt-and-the-great-australian-dissent-9781760856113","provider":"ReChapter","version":"1.0","type":"link"}