Koch, Christopher (1932-2013), an Australian writer, won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia’s top fiction prize, in 1986 for The Doubleman (see Franklin, Miles). This novel is set in Hobart, Tasmania, and in Sydney. It explores the effects that belief in the occult have on its characters. Koch’s first novel was The Boys in the Island (1958, revised 1974 and 1987), which describes the experience of growing up in Tasmania and the “big city” of Melbourne. Across the Sea Wall (1965, revised 1972) is a novel set in Australia and India and tells of a young Australian’s obsessive love for a Latvian girl. The Year of Living Dangerously (1978) presents a young Australian journalist’s involvement in Jakarta, Indonesia, during a time of political crisis. The novel won a number of prizes. It was made into a motion picture of the same title in 1982. Koch collaborated on the script for the movie. Crossing the Gap (1987) is a collection of essays.
Christopher John Koch was born on July 16, 1932, in Hobart. He worked with the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a producer from 1957 to 1959 and from 1962 to 1972, when he devoted himself to writing full-time. He died on Sept. 23, 2013.
