Questions of Travel
{{Short description|Book by Michelle de Kretser}}
{{Use Australian English|date=April 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox book |
| name = Questions of Travel
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:Questions_of_Travel_book_cover.png
| caption = First edition
| author = Michelle de Kretser
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = Australia
| language = English
| series =
| genre = Literary
| publisher = Allen and Unwin, Australia
| release_date = 2012
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print (Paperback)
| pages = 517 pp
| isbn = 9781743311004
| oclc =
| preceded_by = The Lost Dog
| followed_by = Springtime
}}
Questions of Travel is a 2012 novel by Australian author Michelle de Kretser.{{cite web|title= Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6099838 |access-date= 14 December 2024}} It won the 2013 Miles Franklin Award and the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction.
Description
The novel concerns two main characters: Laura—an Australian woman who travels the world before returning to Sydney to work for a publisher of travel guides—and Ravi—an IT professional from Sri Lanka who flees his country after a major trauma. The novel "illuminates travel, work and modern dreams in this brilliant evocation of the way we live now."[http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/2013/michelle Miles Franklin Award novel synopsis] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125163147/http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/2013/michelle |date=January 25, 2014 }}
Owen Richardson, in his review of the novel in The Monthly described it as "...a big, ambitious novel of Sydney and the world, globalisation and divided identities. It is everywhere full of intelligence and a vivid sense of individual lives."{{cite web|title="Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser" |publisher= The Monthly, October 2012|url=http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/october/1349327375/owen-richardson/questions-travel-michelle-de-kretser|access-date= 14 December 2024}}
The novel's title, Questions of Travel, is a homage to a poem of the same name by Elizabeth Bishop.{{cite news|last1=Moorhouse|first1=Frank|title=Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser – review by Frank Moorhouse|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-culture-blog/2013/jun/17/questions-travel-michelle-de-kretser-review|access-date=5 November 2015|work=The Guardian|date=17 June 2013}}
Awards
- 2012 winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Premier's Prize{{cite web|title="2012 Winners" |publisher= State Library of Western Australia|url=https://slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/awards-fellowships/wa-premiers-book-awards/awards-archive/2012-winners|access-date= 14 December 2024}}
- 2012 winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Fiction
- 2013 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2013 winner ALS Gold Medal{{cite web|title= ALS Gold Medal — Previous Winners |publisher= Association for the Study of Australian Literature|url= https://www.asal.org.au/awards/als-gold-medal/|access-date= 14 December 2024}}
- 2013 shortlisted Indie Book Awards — Fiction{{cite web|title="The 2013 Indie Awards Shortlist Announced" |publisher= Readings|url=https://www.readings.com.au/news/the-2013-indie-awards-shortlist-announced|access-date= 14 December 2024}}
- 2013 winner Miles Franklin Award{{Cite web |date=2013-06-19 |title=Michelle de Kretser wins Miles Franklin literary award |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/19/michelle-de-kretser-miles-franklin |access-date=14 December 2024 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}
- 2013 shortlisted Nita Kibble Literary Awards — Nita Kibble Literary Award{{cite web |last1=Morris |first1=Linda |date=25 July 2013 |title='The Beloved': Memoir that became a novel wins life writing award |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-beloved-memoir-that-became-a-novel-wins-life-writing-award-20130725-2qkh2.html |accessdate=14 December 2024 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}
- 2013 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Fiction{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-08-26 |title=Awards: Aussie Prime Minister's Literary |url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2071 |access-date=14 December 2024 |website=Shelf Awareness |archive-date=24 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024160836/https://shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2071 |url-status=live }}
- 2013 shortlisted Stella Prize{{cite web|title="Stella Prize 2013 – Shortlist" |publisher= The Stella Prize|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228051150/http://thestellaprize.com.au/the-stella-prize/2013-2/shortlist-2013/|access-date= 14 December 2024}}
- 2014 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Fiction
- 2014 shortlisted International Dublin Literary Award
- 2014 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Book of the Year
- 2014 joint winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Community Relations Commission Award With Andrew Bovell's stage adaptation of The Secret River{{cite web|website=State Library of NSW|url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/content/2014-multicultural-nsw-award-0|title=2014 - NSW Multicultural Award: The winner, shortlists and judges' comments|access-date=14 December 2024}}
- 2014 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction{{cite web|title=Winners 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Awards announced TONIGHT|url=http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/media/index.cfm/2014/5/19/winners-2014-nsw-premiers-literary-awards-announced-tonight|publisher=State Library of NSW|access-date=14 December 2024|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201045923/http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/media/index.cfm/2014/5/19/winners-2014-nsw-premiers-literary-awards-announced-tonight|archive-date=1 February 2016}}
- 2014 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction{{cite web |date=2014 |title=Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2014 |url=http://wheelercentre.com/projects/victorian-premier-s-literary-awards-2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125133913/http://wheelercentre.com/projects/victorian-premier-s-literary-awards-2014 |archive-date=25 January 2014 |access-date=14 December 2024 |work=Victorian Premier's Literary Awards}}
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."[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/books/review/questions-of-travel-by-michelle-de-kretser.html?_r=0 The New York Times]
References
{{reflist}}
{{Miles Franklin Award}}
{{New South Wales Premier's Prize for Fiction}}
{{Prime Minister's Literary Award – Fiction}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Questions of Travel}}
Category:2012 Australian novels
Category:Miles Franklin Award–winning works
Category:Prime Minister's Literary Award-winning works
Category:New South Wales Premier's Prize for Fiction Award-winning works
Category:Novels set in Sri Lanka