Michelle De Kretser

"'When my family emigrated it felt as if we'd been stood on our heads.' Michelle de Kretser's electrifying book turns the novel upside down, just as migratin has upended her characters' lives. 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. Islam...

"Laura Fraser grows up in Sydney, motherless, with a cold father and an artistic bent. Ravi Mendes is on the other side of the world--his humble father dead, his mother struggling, determined to succeed in computer science. Their stories alternate throughout-- culminating in unlikely fates for them both, destinies influenced by travel--voluntary in her case, enforced in his. With money from an inheritance, Laura sets off to see the world, returning...