Background
Koch, Christopher John was born on July 16, 1932 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Son of John Athol Burton and Phyllis Myra (Hurburgh) Koch.
(“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocati...)
“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocation of recent history.”—The New York Times Ray Barton travels to war-ravaged Southeast Asia to search for his missing friend Michael Langford, a brilliant, risk-taking combat photographer who was stolen into Khmer Rouge Cambodia on a mysterious mission and disappeared. The search illuminates Langford’s heroism, his fierce loyalties, and the personal highways he has traveled to war. Langford’s empathy for the brave but poorly commanded Cambodian troops and his love for a young Cambodian woman have led him in the end to put down the camera and take up the gun in a foreign struggle he had made his own. Koch richly evokes Indochina—from the deceptively tranquil rice paddies of South Vietnam to the corrupt, doomed pink-and-white city of Phnom Penh. Highways to a War is a story of intense relationships forged in a dangerous and hallucinatory land that continues to haunt the American soul. “An absorbing, deeply moving . . . tale of love and heroism. . . . The evocation of the Cambodian landscape . . . is truly haunting.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highways to a War ranks among the best of the . . . literature that has come out of the agony of the wars in Southeast Asia.”—The Orlando Sentinel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140247572/?tag=2022091-20
(An intelligent, compelling tale of political turmoil in m...)
An intelligent, compelling tale of political turmoil in mid-twentieth-century Indonesia. "Well conceived and beautifully executed."—Larry McMurtry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140065350/?tag=2022091-20
Koch, Christopher John was born on July 16, 1932 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Son of John Athol Burton and Phyllis Myra (Hurburgh) Koch.
He was educated at Clemes College, Street Virgil"s College, Hobart High School and the University of Tasmania.
Christopher John Koch Association for the Study of Internal Fixation (16 July 1932 – 23 September 2013) was an Australian novelist, known for his 1978 novel The Year of Living Dangerously, which was adapted into an award-winning film. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 1954, he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (American Broadcasting Company) as a cadet journalist. He left Hobart to travel in south Asia and Europe, and ended up in London where he worked for several years until he returned to Australia to avoid national service in the British Army.
While working in London as a waiter and a teacher, Koch began working on his first novel, The Boys in the Island, which he left with his agent when he returned to Australia.
Koch"s first published works were several poems published in The Bulletin and the literary journal Southerly. While back at the American Broadcasting Company as a radio producer, The Boys in the Island was published in the United Kingdom, with the positive reviews encouraging Koch to eventually take up writing full-time in 1972.
In the early 1960s, Koch was awarded a writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he taught literature and was associated with Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo"s Nest). His novel The Year of Living Dangerously, set in Jakarta during the fall of the Sukarno regime, was made into a film directed by Peter Weir and starring Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt.
The book was loosely inspired by his brother"s (Philip Koch) experience as an Australian journalist in Indonesia during that period.
Koch died at his home in Hobart on 23 September 2013, aged 81. He had been diagnosed with cancer twelve months earlier.
(Twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award and an Officer o...)
(An intelligent, compelling tale of political turmoil in m...)
(This is a fable of the sixties and the author's theme is ...)
(Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)
(“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocati...)
Member Australian Society Authors, Australian Writers' Guild.
Married Irene Vilnonis, 1960 (divorced 1982).