Questions Of Travel by Michelle de Kretser

 

Laura's father left her mother when Laura was a child.  When her mother died and she inherited some money, she left Australia after deciding to travel.  She roamed the world going wherever whim took her, meeting friends and moving on after a time.  After her money ran out, she took jobs like waitressing and house sitting but she ended up working for travel magazines, back on the road but now writing about her experiences.  Her nomadic life and disastrous choice in men left her without a stable life with a house, marriage or children.

Ravi's travels are much less of a whim but are forced upon him.  He is Sri Lankian.  He and his family are caught up in the political battles of his country and when his family gets involved in a terrorist attack he is forced to flee for his safety. He ends up in Australia as well, but as a refugee.  After doing whatever manual work he can find, a friend helps him get on at a travel magazine since he has training as a web designer.  There he meets Laura.

Michelle de Kretser drew on her own life for this novel.  She was born in Sri Lanka but moved to Australia with her family at fourteen.  She also worked as an editor for a travel guide as both her characters did.  Her work has won multiple prizes, including the Miles Franklin, which she has won three times.  Other awards include the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, the Prime Minister's Literary Award and the ALS Gold Medal.  In this novel, she writes about the yearning to see what is unfamiliar but also raises the question of where one belongs and the constant search for wherever that might be.  Life seems to happen to these characters rather than them planning and directing their lives yet might they be as happy as those who live their lives to a plan?  This novel is recommended for literary fiction readers.