Although generally recognized as an Australian writer, David Martin published his first work in Germany, and he was recognized in England long before he came to Australia. His work covers the whole range of literary genres and is consistently marked by an interest in the ethical, philosophical, and political issues he brought with him from his European background.

David Martin was born Ludwig Desinyi in Budapest, Hungary, on 22 December 1915. He grew up in Germany, to which his family moved at the end of World War I. His father had been an officer in the Austro- Hungarian army and came from a family of Jews with a scattering of rabbis but thoroughly assimilated into European and, particularly, German culture. Martin's mother died when he was two, and he was brought up by his stepmother, Sonia. He claimed that the formative influences on his childhood were his rivalry with his...