| A World of Other People | |
| Author: | Steven Carroll |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | novel |
| Publisher: | Fourth Estate, Australia |
| Release Date: | 2013 |
| Media Type: | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages: | 278 |
| Isbn: | 9780732291204 |
| Preceded By: | Spirit of Progress |
| Followed By: | Forever Young |
A World of Other People (2013) is a novel by Australian author Steven Carroll. It was the joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.[1]
The novel uses T. S. Eliot's poem "Little Gidding" from Four Quartets as a starting point. The time is 1941 and London is experiencing The Blitz. Iris, a young civil servant, has volunteered to be an aircraft spotter on a building in Russell Square. Another spotter is Eliot himself, as the building is the headquarters of the publishing house, Faber & Faber. Late one night the pair witness the crash of a British Wellington bomber, and Eliot goes on to write his poem utilising this incident. At the initial public reading of the poem, Jim, the pilot of the crashed aircraft, happens to be in the audience and recognises his accident being depicted in the poem.
Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.The honest thief, the tender murderer,The superstitious atheist...
– "Bishop Blougram's Apology", Robert Browning.