Scary Monsters

<b>Michelle de Kretser </b>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: <i>The Rose Grower</i> <i>The Hamilton Case</i> <i>The Lost Dog</i> which was longlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange Prize <i>Q</i><i>uestions of Travel</i> which won several prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister's Literary Award and <i>The Life to Come</i> winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She lives in Sydney. <b>*** WINNER OF THE 2023 RATHBONES FOLIO FICTION PRIZE***</b><br><b></b><br><b>ONE OF SLATE'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022</b><br><b></b><br><b>'Every page of her story feels charged like an open circuit waiting for its switch; a lurking wallop. It's magnificent peerless writing' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><i></i><br><i>'When my family emigrated it felt as if we'd been stood on our heads.'</i><br><br>Michelle de Kretser's electrifying take on scary monsters turns the novel upside down - just as migration has upended her characters' lives.<br><br>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 has been banned in the country the air is smoky from a Permanent Fire Zone and one pandemic has already run its course.<br><br>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. All the while Lili is striving to be A Bold Intelligent Woman like Simone de Beauvoir.<br><br>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. With this suspenseful funny and profound book Michelle de Kretser has made something thrilling and new.<br><br><i>'Which comes first the future or the past?'</i> Three monsters - racism misogyny and ageism - preside over Michelle de Kretser's mesmerising and innovative novel. <b>Slyly intelligent</b>...the book's overriding sense of anger and alarm also mingles with satirical glee. Even if she obviously has the apocalyptic drift of the present in sight De Kretser passes on to the reader the inescapable feeling that she's also having fun in this <b>engaging amalgam of lament and warning shot.</b> Every page of her story feels charged like an open circuit waiting for its switch; a lurking wallop. It's <b>magnificent peerless writing.</b> A carefully constructed pattern of thematic echoes...filled with <b>unexpected details apt quick literary brushstrokes and the gleam of humour.</b> For what it's worth I'd call it two novellas: but either way it's terrific. <i>Scary Monsters </i>is a <b>provocative and exhilarating</b> game of snakes and ladders <b>Engrossing</b>...a powerful portrait of feeling adrift in a hostile environment suffused with stabs of beautiful description <b>truly great...brilliant </b> Ruminative and sly rather than preachy this novel about complacency and compromise <b>packs a stealthy bite</b> De Kretser clearly relishes demonstrating how close we are to this dystopian future where government hatespokespersons dominate the media and a climate no-policy has already wreaked havoc.<b> What lingers in the mind however are the connections she makes between past prejudices and a future society devoid of values or compassion</b> Written with <b>incandescent moral energy profound compassion and astonishing precision and beauty</b> Michelle de Kretser's <i>Scary Monsters</i> extends the very possibilities of the novel form. On the contemporary international scene there are very very few writers who can match her style her intelligence her vision. To read her is to be changed. In <i>Scary Monsters</i> de Kretser addresses the weightiest of subjects with the lightest and deftest of touches and the result is <b>funny playful painful angry and above all ferociously smart</b>. It's <b>a dazzling novel</b> by a hugely talented author. A<b> radically brilliant</b> diptych-novel in complex conversation with itself and with the world we live in written by <b>one of the living masters of the art of fiction</b>. A beautifully troubling book. I love the way <i>Scary Monsters</i> asks urgent questions about what kind of future we might be sleepwalking towards. And heightens the enquiry by looking back; by unsettling and disturbing our sense of where we are now and where we are headed by dissecting - with exquisite deftness - the barely-concealed misogyny and racism of <i>then</i> to awaken our senses to<i> </i><i>now</i>. It's <b>a novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth written with verve humour and exceptional elegance. </b> Bold spare and completely original <b>one of the most exciting contemporary novels</b> I've read for a very long time. I read <i>Scary Monsters</i> months ago and can't stop thinking about it. This is a <b>bold unsettling and beautifully written </b>book. De Kretser is <b>a wonderful writer.</b>..Though her skewering satire is pointed and painful her gallows humor keeps the reader smiling. <i>Scary Monsters</i> is <b>a marvel.</b> Each of the two very different parts of the novel had me totally riveted intensely absorbed wowed by de Kretser's scathing accuracy - whether she's chronicling youth's delights and distortions or a future where prosperity is the new unethics. It's a <b>wildly remarkable</b> book that unfolds like no other. [A]n <b>inventive satirical and confronting</b> exploration of the migrant experience. Is it possible we already have the year's best novel? I'll be amazed if anything surpasses this <b>compulsive exquisitely light-footed </b>narrative...glorious. De Kretser's satirical observations - on the literati self-congratulation suburban pretension - are so subtly deboning they remind me of Jane Austen's...<i>The Life to Come</i> <b>deserves all the gongs we can bang for it.</b> Exhilaratingly good writing...each page yields <b>sparkling sentences and keen observations.</b> [de Kretser's] writing captures with <b>unflagging wit grace and subtlety</b> the spiritual as well as physical journeys of people on the move - between cultures mindsets and stages of growth. <b>Slyly intelligent</b>...the book's overriding sense of anger and alarm also mingles with satirical glee. Even if she obviously has the apocalyptic drift of the present in sight De Kretser passes on to the reader the inescapable feeling that she's also having fun in this <b>engaging amalgam of lament and warning shot.</b> Every page of her story feels charged like an open circuit waiting for its switch; a lurking wallop. It's <b>magnificent peerless writing.</b> A carefully constructed pattern of thematic echoes...filled with <b>unexpected details apt quick literary brushstrokes and the gleam of humour.</b> For what it's worth I'd call it two novellas: but either way it's terrific. <i>Scary Monsters </i>is a <b>provocative and exhilarating</b> game of snakes and ladders <b>Engrossing</b>...a powerful portrait of feeling adrift in a hostile environment suffused with stabs of beautiful description <b>truly great...brilliant </b> Ruminative and sly rather than preachy this novel about complacency and compromise <b>packs a stealthy bite</b> De Kretser clearly relishes demonstrating how close we are to this dystopian future where government hatespokespersons dominate the media and a climate no-policy has already wreaked havoc.<b> What lingers in the mind however are the connections she makes between past prejudices and a future society devoid of values or compassion</b> Written with <b>incandescent moral energy profound compassion and astonishing precision and beauty</b> Michelle de Kretser's <i>Scary Monsters</i> extends the very possibilities of the novel form. On the contemporary international scene there are very very few writers who can match her style her intelligence her vision. To read her is to be changed. In <i>Scary Monsters</i> de Kretser addresses the weightiest of subjects with the lightest and deftest of touches and the result is <b>funny playful painful angry and above all ferociously smart</b>. It's <b>a dazzling novel</b> by a hugely talented author. A<b> radically brilliant</b> diptych-novel in complex conversation with itself and with the world we live in written by <b>one of the living masters of the art of fiction</b>. A beautifully troubling book. I love the way <i>Scary Monsters</i> asks urgent questions about what kind of future we might be sleepwalking towards. And heightens the enquiry by looking back; by unsettling and disturbing our sense of where we are now and where we are headed by dissecting - with exquisite deftness - the barely-concealed misogyny and racism of <i>then</i> to awaken our senses to<i> </i><i>now</i>. It's <b>a novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth written with verve humour and exceptional elegance. </b> Bold spare and completely original <b>one of the most exciting contemporary novels</b> I've read for a very long time. I read <i>Scary Monsters</i> months ago and can't stop thinking about it. This is a <b>bold unsettling and beautifully written </b>book. De Kretser is <b>a wonderful writer.</b>..Though her skewering satire is pointed and painful her gallows humor keeps the reader smiling. <i>Scary Monsters</i> is <b>a marvel.</b> Each of the two very different parts of the novel had me totally riveted intensely absorbed wowed by de Kretser's scathing accuracy - whether she's chronicling youth's delights and distortions or a future where prosperity is the new unethics. It's a <b>wildly remarkable</b> book that unfolds like no other. [A]n <b>inventive satirical and confronting</b> exploration of the migrant experience. Is it possible we already have the year's best novel? I'll be amazed if anything surpasses this <b>compulsive exquisitely light-footed </b>narrative...glorious. De Kretser's satirical observations - on the literati self-congratulation suburban pretension - are so subtly deboning they remind me of Jane Austen's...<i>The Life to Come</i> <b>deserves all the gongs we can bang for it.</b> Exhilaratingly good writing...each page yields <b>sparkling sentences and keen observations.</b> [de Kretser's] writing captures with <b>unflagging wit grace and subtlety</b> the spiritual as well as physical journeys of people on the move - between cultures mindsets and stages of growth.