Saint Antony in His Desert is a hefty, ambitious work that, for the most part, works flawlessly. A defrocked priest is found in Alice Springs carrying nothing but a tattered manuscript containing three stories: a non-fiction text concerning a meeting between Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson, a narrative of two young men visiting Sydney from Canberra who are facing temptations from Sydney’s underground, and reflections from the priest himself as he slowly loses his grip on reality and his faith. The novel switches between these three texts, with the Sydney narrative making up the bulk.

Uhlmann weaves the three texts so effortlessly you hardly notice the transition, as each passage informs the last with clever parallels and foreshadowing.

The novel falls flat, however, in the narrative sections set in Sydney, which were bogged down by overlong descriptions that interrupt the engaging flow of the text. This often occurs in detailing the male gaze of the two protagonists, with overly sexual descriptions of female characters that seem out of place compared to the otherwise neutral writing. I’ve no doubt there’s a reason for this choice – perhaps the naivety of the two young men in question, or the character of the priest who allegedly wrote it – but it often distracts from a story that is otherwise immersive.

Saint Antony is a rewarding novel, unpacking ideas of humanity, philosophy and religion in a unique way. The deeper you get, the more Uhlmann draws you into his fascinating world.

Reviewed by Max Lewis