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The Life to Come

The Life to Come

by Michelle De Kretser (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2018

    $3.40

  • New

    Paperback 2018

    $10.66
Synopsis

Michelle de Kretser's fifth novel is both a delicious satire on the way we live now and a deeply moving examination of the true nature of friendship.

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. Driven by riveting stories and unforgettable characters, here is a dazzling meditation on intimacy, loneliness and our flawed perception of other people.

Profoundly moving as well as bitingly funny, The Life to Come reveals how the shadows cast by both the past and the future can transform, distort and undo the present. Travelling from Sydney to Paris and Sri Lanka, this mesmerising novel feels at once firmly classic and exhilaratingly contemporary.

$3.40

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 384
 Edition: Main
 Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 02 Aug 2018
ISBN 10: 1760296716
ISBN 13: 9781760296711

Media Reviews
Is it possible we already have the year's best novel? I'll be amazed if anything surpasses this compulsive, exquisitely light-footed narrative...glorious. * Daily Mail *
De Kretser's satirical observations - on the literati, self-congratulation, suburban pretension - are so subtly deboning they remind me of Jane Austen's...The Life to Come deserves all the gongs we can bang for it. * The Spectator *
Exhilaratingly good writing...each page yields sparkling sentences and keen observations. * Literary Review *
[de Kretser's] writing captures, with unflagging wit, grace and subtlety, the spiritual as well as physical journeys of people on the move - between cultures, mindsets and stages of growth. -- Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times *
Funny and satirical, this is a biting look at the way we present ourselves and the way we are seen by others. * Stylist *
As always, Michelle de Kretser offers a wide compassionate view...Above all, there is the pleasure of her writing. * Times Literary Supplement *
For a novel concerned with dislocation, there's a lot of grounding humour ...de Kretser's observations are so spot on, you'll forgive her even as you cringe. * New York Times *
Superb, ambitious and deeply moving * The Australian *
A remarkable achievement...wise and abrasive, witty and poignant. * The Saturday Paper *
Her powers of description and evocation are remarkable...Michelle de Kretser has written a comic lament of disarming force. * Sydney Morning Herald *
My book of the year is Michelle de Kretser's The Life to Come, a sharp and unsettling novel - narcissism of all kinds is skewered here - that is deeply pleasurable to read. * Ceridwen Dovey, The Australian *
A joyful and mournful meditation on the endless small pleasures and complications of life...sure-footed and often surprising. * Publishers Weekly *
Author Bio
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 four other novels: The Rose Grower, The Hamilton Case, The Lost Dog, which was longlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange Prize, and Questions of Travel, which won several prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister's Literary Award. She lives in Sydney.