“Questions of Travel” by Michelle de Kretser (Sri Lanka)                          

Review

Members of our Summer Reading Group liked the differences in writing styles and themes of this year’s four shortlisted books finding most of the stories highly enjoyable.

“Questions of Travel” has two parallel narratives, one set in Sri Lanka, the other in Australia. With over 500 pages, readers found the book a bit long and were grateful that the chapters were short. They preferred the parts with the Sri Lankan narrator, as they found the Australian character superficial. They felt that the rich writing style was exaggerated at times and deflected the reader from the story.

Favourite Quote

Novels… she read them as if they were guidebooks, looking for directions on which way to turn.

Synopsis

“Questions of Travel” charts two very different lives: Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides; and Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events… Read more

Nicola’s Summer Reading list 2014

“The Sound of Things Falling” by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (Colombia)
“We Need New Names” by NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)
“Questions of Travel” by Michelle de Kretser (Sri Lanka)
“Expo 58” by Jonathan Coe (U.K.) * 

* Best Summer Read
In italics, Nicola’s Coup de Cœur