Story of travellers and travelees takes Michelle on a winning journey
For the first time in the history of the Miles Franklin Award the shortlist comprised only women writers – among them Sri Lankan born author Michelle de Kretser. Though she has never been in the running before, Michelle’s ‘Questions of Travel’ went on to win the prestigious award, which recognises the novel ‘of the highest literary merit’ that also ‘presents Australian life in any of its phases.’
Speaking on behalf of the panel of judges, Richard Neville hailed the book as “a novel of great ambition and great wisdom.” He went on to add: “Michelle de Kretser’s wonderful novel, ‘Questions of Travel,’ centres on two characters, with two stories, each describing a different journey. The stories intertwine and pull against one another, and, within this double narrative, De Kretser explores questions of home and away, travel and tourism, refugees and migrants, as well as ‘questions of travel’ in the virtual world, charting the rapid changes in electronic communication that mark our lives today.”
Michelle de Kretser: Winner of Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award. Pic- James Croucher, Source: The Australian
One of the stories in this double narrative is that of a Sri Lankan named Ravi Mendes, who flees the country to seek asylum in Australia in the wake of the brutal murder of his wife and son. As part of her plan for the book, Michelle drew on extensive research to reference key events during the last four decades of the 20th century, touching on topics like the first JVP insurgency and the 1983 riots.
Ravi is Sinhalese and has a fascination for technologies like the internet and an equal and opposite aversion to socialising with his compatriots. In these and in other ways he personifies a challenge to immigrant stereotypes. “In news items, refugees are referred to generically as refugees. I just hoped that by telling the story of one man, who is not a typical Sri Lankan refugee, I could suggest that there is no such thing as a typical refugee…that there are only individuals who suffer and to humanise the plight of these people,” Michelle told the Sunday Times over a Skype conversation from her home in Sydney.
The quietly ambitious book is Michelle’s fourth novel and as we noted in an interview carried in the Sunday Times in May this year, some of the questions of travel she raises in it are her own. (Michelle, who migrated to Australia with her family in 1972 was last in Sri Lanka in 2010 to attend the Galle Literary Festival.) Drawing from her experience of having lived in and left her fair share of cities, Michelle says that issues of social justice were those that haunted her, particularly as manifested in the differing experiences of those who visit a country and those who live there. “That is what the book is about in many ways,” she says, now. “I’m interested in the disconnection between travellers, and let’s say, travelees – the people who are travelled upon, as it were and the gap between these two kinds of lives.”
‘Questions of Travel’ explores the sweeping currents of accelerated technological development, travel on a scale never seen before and ever widening gap between the richest and the poorest in our societies but anchors these large, cumbersome topics in her intimate portrayals of her many characters. “That’s what novels do, they tell the stories of individuals,” says Michelle. Disinterested in preaching to her readers, Michelle created two very flawed, sympathetic characters in Ravi and his fellow protagonist Laura Fraser. Australian-born Laura couldn’t be a greater contrast to Ravi and when she finds her way to Sri Lanka toward the end, the novel comes a full circle.
The author who was in England when the prize was announced, says she was caught completely by surprise as she had never expected to win. A record number of entries were submitted in 2013 for the Miles Franklin Award, which is named after the Australian author most famous for the classic ‘My Brilliant Career’ (published in 1901). Franklin bequeathed her estate to fund this award, which comes with A$60,000 prize. Having taken home the award this year, Michelle who has previously authored ‘The Rose Grower’ ,‘The Hamilton Case’ and ‘The Lost Dog’, says she hopes her book will make people think about travel in new ways.
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