Christopher John Koch AO (16 July 1932 – 22 September 2013) was an Australian novelist, best known for his 1978 novel The Year of Living Dangerously, which was adapted into an award-winning film. He has twice won the Miles Franklin Award (for theThe Doubleman in 1985, and Highways to a War in 1996). In 1995 he was made anOfficer of the Order of Australia for contribution to Australian literature.

Biography

Koch was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1932. He was educated at Clemes College, St Virgil's College, Hobart High School and the University of Tasmania. After graduating, he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as a cadet journalist. He left Hobart to travel in south Asia and Europe, and ended up in London where he worked for several years until he returned to Australia to avoid national service in the British Army.

Koch's first published works were several poems published in The Bulletin and the literary journal Southerly.[1] While back at the ABC as a radio producer, Koch began working on his first novel, The Boys in the Island, which was published in 1958.

His novel The Year of Living Dangerously, set in Jakarta during the fall of the Sukarnoregime, was made into a film directed by Peter Weir and starring Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt. The book was loosely inspired by his brother's (Philip Koch) experience as an Australian journalist in Indonesia during that period.

Koch died at his home in Hobart on 22 September 2013, aged 81. He had been diagnosed with cancer twelve months earlier.

Personal life

Koch married his first wife, Irene Vilnois, in 1959. Their son, Gareth Koch (born 1962), is a classical guitarist. His second wife, Robin, lived with him in Sydney and Tasmania, and was with him when he died in 2013.