Showing results by narrator "Robert Dessaix" in All Categories

Adopted as a baby towards the end of World War II, Robert Dessaix grew up haunted by 'a shaft of silence' surrounding the question of his natural mother's identity, and of his identity and sexuality. In this touching memoir, he recounts the story of a most unusual childhood on Sydney's North Shore; of his fascination with Russia and his years spent studying in Cold War Moscow; and of his restless wanderings around the world.

Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, his discovery of travel.