The Australian writer David malouf deserves more critical attention, especially in Europe, than is generally recognized. This first full-length critical study has been undertaken in the conviction that a serious assessment of his oeuvre is due. Its purpose is to investigate and illuminate the continuity and unity of Malouf´s fiction and poetry by focusing on aspects of identity in his writing. All his published works testify to his attempt to define and preserve individual identity "at the edge of darkness" through interrelations, language, imagination and art in a wrold of disintegrating humanist values.