Michelle de Kretser wins the 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Award

Michelle de Kretser has been named the winner of this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award for her sixth work of fiction, The Life to Come. This is the second time that de Kretser has won this prestigious award.

Set over Sydney, Paris and Sri Lanka, The Life to Come is a dazzling meditation on intimacy, loneliness and our flawed perception of other people. In its pages we meet a cast of flawed, relatable characters: Pippa is a writer who longs for success; Celeste tries to convince herself that her feelings for her married lover are reciprocated; Ash makes strategic use of his childhood in Sri Lanka but blots out the memory of a tragedy from that time.

Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian of the State Library of NSW and head of the Award judging panel, says: ‘Sentence-by-sentence, it is elegant, full of life and funny. With her characteristic wit and style, Michelle de Kretser dissects the way Australians see ourselves, and reflects on the ways other parts of the world see us’.

Readings bookseller Ellen Cregan says: ‘This novel is acerbically funny, heart-twingeing and incredibly moving, and I enjoyed every page.’ You can read her full review here.

De Kretser won the Miles Franklin for the first time in 2013 with her wonderful novel, Questions of Travel. You can find all of her books here.

First awarded in 1957, the Miles Franklin Literary Award is presented annually to a novel of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases. As the winner, de Kretser will receive $60,000 in prize money. You can find out more about the award here.

Cover image for The Life to Come

The Life to Come

Michelle de Kretser

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