Why did the sacking of rugby player Israel Folau over his social media posts become one of the nation’s most polarizing controversies? How could one man’s religious views activate so many people in modern Australia? And what does the sides people found themselves on tell us about the kind of country we’ve become? Starting with this striking incident, triple Walkley Award winning journalist Malcolm Knox paints a vivid portrait of the divisions that underlie our recent history, from marriage equality to the covid lockdown. He shows how free speech has become the new flashpoint of the ‘culture wars’, and how it remains our deepest national faultline.
Author
Malcolm Knox was born in 1966. He grew up in Sydney and studied in Sydney and Scotland, where his one-act play, POLEMARCHUS, was performed in St Andrews and Edinburgh. He has worked for the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD since 1994 and his journalism has been published in Australia, Britain, India and the West Indies. His first novel Summerland was published to great acclaim in the UK, US, Australia and Europe in 2000. In 2001 Malcolm was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian novelists. He lives in Sydney with his wife Wenona, son Callum and daughter Lilian. His most recent novel, A Private Man, was critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for the Commomwealth Prize and the Tasmanian Premier’s Award.
