Michelle de Kretser

Books on prize lists

• Theory & Practice

  Written in English

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  Miles Franklin 2025 · Shortlist

  Theory & Practice

  Theory & Practice

  Michelle de Kretser · 67 when first published

  Novel · 192 pages · Love, Autofiction

  AIAI-generated summary:In 1986 a young Sri Lankan-born woman arrives in Melbourne to write a thesis on Virginia Woolf and, in bohemian St Kilda, falls for Kit, a man who says his relationship is 'deconstructed'.

• Scary Monsters

  Written in English

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  Miles Franklin 2022 · Shortlist

  Scary Monsters

  Scary Monsters

  Michelle de Kretser · 64 when first published

  Novel · 320 pages · Migration, Speculative

  AIAI-generated summary:Two Asian migrants to Australia tell their stories from either end of a reversible book: Lili, teaching English in the south of France in the 1980s, and Lyle, a government worker in a near-future Australia where Islam is banned.

• The Life to Come

  Written in English

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  Miles Franklin 2018 · ★ Winner

  The Life to Come

  The Life to Come

  Michelle de Kretser · 60 when first published

  Novel · 375 pages · Migration

  AIAI-generated summary:In Sydney, Paris and Sri Lanka, loosely linked lives cross over decades: an ambitious young writer, a translator in love with a married man, and a man who trades on his Sri Lankan childhood while hiding a tragedy from it.

• Questions of Travel

  Written in English

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  Miles Franklin 2013 · ★ Winner

  Questions of Travel

  Questions of Travel

  Michelle de Kretser · 55 when first published

  Novel · 517 pages · Migration

  AIAI-generated summary:Laura grows up motherless in Sydney with a cold father; in Sri Lanka, Ravi loses his father and is drawn to computers. Over four decades their lives, both shaped by travel, unfold side by side.