Scary Monsters
Michelle de Kretser
2023 WINNER, FICTION CATEGORY
The Judges said:
A sublime novel that slips, fascinates and terrifies at once. De Kretser’s Scary Monsters deserves to be read again and again.
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Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces ‘Australian values’. He’s also preoccupied by his ambitious wife, his wayward children and his strong-minded elderly mother.
Lili’s family migrated to Australia from Asia when she was a teenager. Now, in the 1980s, she’s teaching in the south of France. She makes friends, observes the treatment handed out to North African immigrants and is creeped out by her downstairs neighbour.
Three scary monsters – racism, misogyny and ageism – roam through this mesmerising novel. Its reversible format enacts the disorientation that migrants experience when changing countries changes the story of their lives.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was 14. She was educated in Melbourne and Paris. She is the author of five other novels: The Rose Grower, The Hamilton Case, The Lost Dog, which was longlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange Prize, Questions of Travel, which won several prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and The Life to Come, winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She lives in Sydney.
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Five Questions for Michelle de Kretser
At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?
Forty something. […]
I’ve been addicted to print since the age of four.
What was your favourite childhood book?
There were dozens, very possibly hundreds.
Which is your favourite book of recent years?
Again, so, so many. But everyone should read Fiona McFarlane’s magnificent novel The Sun Walks Down.
What is your ‘if you don’t like this, you can’t be my friend’ book?
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?
Weeping (more, I mean).
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Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was 14. She was educated in Melbourne and Paris. She is the author of five other novels: The Rose Grower, The Hamilton Case, The Lost Dog, which was longlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange Prize, Questions of Travel, which won several prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and The Life to Come, winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She lives in Sydney.
