Maestro

Goldsworthy spent much of his childhood in the small town of Darwin, an experience that shaped the setting for his most famous novel, Maestro (1989). As a young man, he attended the University of Adelaide, where he studied medicine, later balancing his life as a general practitioner and a writer. He published his first poetry collection, Readings from Ecclesiastes, in 1974. The book earned him significant acclaim in the Australian literary scene. Goldsworthy’s breakthrough as a novelist came with Maestro, a coming-of-age story set in Darwin that takes influence from his own experiences as a child. The novel remains one of his most celebrated works and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Goldsworthy’s other major works include Honk If You Are Jesus (1992), a darkly comic novel about medical ethics and cloning, and Wish (1995), which delves into themes of communication and human-animal relationships. In addition to his literary works, Goldsworthy has written libretti for operas, such as Batavia and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, winning the 2002 Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work for Batavia alongside composer Richard Mills. His versatility as a writer has made him one of Australia’s most respected literary figures, and his works have been translated into several languages and adapted for both stage and screen.

Maestro takes place in post-World War II Australia, a time when the country was undergoing significant cultural shifts due to increased immigration, particularly from Europe. After the war, Australia implemented policies to encourage European migration, leading to the arrival of thousands of displaced persons, including those from countries ravaged by the conflict, such as Austria. Eduard Keller is one such immigrant, and his background as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna is central to his character. Keller’s personal history is tied to significant historical events, notably the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. The novel portrays the trauma that many European immigrants experienced, particularly Jewish refugees who survived the war but lost family members and their former lives. Keller’s guilt over his role as a pianist entertaining Nazis, including Hitler, and his failure to protect his family from the concentration camps, mirrors the moral dilemmas and survivor’s guilt felt by many who lived through this dark period. Australia’s post-war immigration boom significantly shaped the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. Immigrants like Keller brought European art and music to Australia, for instance. At the same time, the novel also touches on the isolation that many immigrants felt as they struggled to reconcile their traumatic pasts with their new lives in a vastly different society.

Maestro belongs to the genre of the Bildungsroman, a literary tradition that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of a protagonist from youth to adulthood. In this genre, the central character undergoes significant personal development, often prompted by a series of life experiences, relationships, or events that challenge their understanding of the world and themselves. Some of the most iconic examples of the Bildungsroman genre include David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. Like Maestro, these novels are often centered around the influence of mentors or other important figures who radically alter the trajectory of the protagonist’s life. Additionally, Maestro fits well within the tradition of teacher-student narratives, such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. In both works, the mentor figure is deeply flawed, and the mentor-student relationship becomes pivotal to the protagonist’s development. Keller, like Miss Brodie, is enigmatic and deeply influential. Also like Keller, she has a dark past that influences how she shapes her students.