In 2003, Noel Henricksen introduced Island and Otherland, his literary biography of Christopher Koch, with the declaration that “Koch is a storyteller”.[1] Henricksen’s book also reveals a lesser-known side of Koch as sketcher and watercolourist.[2] Such art is the true vocation of Hugh Dixon, protagonist of Koch’s latest novel, Lost Voices.[3] Yet Hugh is not the sole subject, for the novel tells the stories of two others, Martin Dixon, Hugh’s colonial ancestor, and Walter Dixon, Hugh’s great-uncle, a surviving link between Hugh and Martin. Lost Voices encompasses three major elements: the tale of the growth and development of a talented…