''Questions of Travel'' is a 2012 novel by Australian author

Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser (born 1957) is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), and moved to Australia in 1972 when she was 14. Education and literary career De Kretser was educated at Methodist College, Colombo, and in Melbo ...

. It won the 2013 Miles Franklin Award and the 2013

Prime Minister's Literary Award The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

Awards

* 2013 winner

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the West ...

— Premier's Prize * 2013 winner

— Fiction * 2013 winner Miles Franklin Award * 2013 winner

Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts.Australian Literature Society Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

* 2013 shortlisted The Stella Prize * 2013 shortlisted Indie Awards — Fiction * 2014 winner

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

— Book of the Year * 2014 joint winner

— Community Relations Commission Award With Andrew Bovell's stage adaptation of ''The Secret River''. * 2014 winner

— Christina Stead Prize for Fiction * 2014 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Fiction * 2014 shortlisted

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

— The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction * 2014 shortlisted

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

Notes

The novel carried the following dedication: * "In memory of Leah Akie". It also contained the following epigraphs: * "Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle...." E.M. Forster ''Howards End''. * "But surely it would have been a pity not to have seen the trees along this road, really exaggerated in their beauty." Elizabeth Bishop ''Questions of Travel''. * "Anywhere! Anywhere!" Charles Baudelaire ''Anywhere Out of the World''.

Reviews

* Frank Moorhouse in ''The Guardian'': "Australia has been waiting for a book which looks into the face of travel and sees it for all the illusions and traps and shallowness and, sometimes, life-changing meaning that it offers or withholds." * Randy Boyagoda in ''The New York Times'': "Like our expectations of travel, as opposed to the realities we usually experience, de Kretser’s novel is a book full of promise that offers many passing wonders and intensities amid a lot of busy-making and slack time."''The New York Times''
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Questions of Travel 2012 Australian novels Miles Franklin Award-winning works Novels set in Sydney Novels set in Sri Lanka ALS Gold Medal winning works Allen & Unwin books